November 20, 2013

A Black Hole Mystery Revealed

This image is an artist’s illustration of the 4U1630-47 star system featuring powerful jets emanating from a black hole candidate that is just a few times the mass of our sun. So what type of matter is contained in these jets?

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The image above is an artist’s illustration of the 4U1630-47 star system featuring powerful jets emanating from a black hole candidate that is just a few times the mass of our sun.

So what type of matter is contained in these jets?

The jets have an overall positive charge, which means they must contain something other than electrons. And indeed, according to a study in the journal Nature, the jets were also composed of normal matter such as nickel and iron. The authors of the study therefore suggest the jets are carrying more energy away from the black hole than was previously known.

Illustration Credit: NASA, CXC, M. Weiss

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