Credit & Copyright: M. Weiss
(CXC)
Explanation:
The motion of ultra-fast
jets shooting out from a candidate
black hole star system have now been documented
by observations from the orbiting
Chandra X-ray Observatory.
In 1998, X-ray source
XTE J1550-564 underwent a tremendous outburst.
Jets of material sent streaming into space at
near light-speed impacted existing gas heating it so much
it glowed in
X-ray light.
The panels on the left of the
above image show in X-rays that the
hot spots have moved out by more than three
light years in the time since the explosion,
with the left jet recently fading below detectability.
The drawing of the right depicts the
binary star system
that likely produced the X-ray jets,
with a normal red star on the left dumping matter into an
accretion disk around the
black hole on the right.
The jets are thought to be emitted along the
spin axis of the
black hole.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day