NASA scientists spotted rings around the black hole. They reveal more about not only the black hole but its companion star and dust clouds too. Here’s what the black hole rings mean.
What are these ‘spectacular rings’ around the black hole?
Right after the discovery of light behind a black hole, follows another discovery shedding light on the most elusive part of the universe. The telescope captures some unusual rings around a black hole. These rings are actively pulling material away from a companion star that is half the mass of the sun.
“The black hole is part of a binary system called V404 Cygni, located about 7,800 light-years away from earth. The black hole is actively pulling material away from a companion star — with about half the mass of the Sun — into a disk around the invisible object. This material glows in X-rays, so astronomers refer to these systems as X-ray binaries,” said NASA scientists.
How were the rings discovered?
Researchers from NASA discovered it using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Back in 2015, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory reported a burst of X-Rays from V404 Cygni. It gave rise to high-energy rings after bouncing between the dust clouds between the Earth and V404 Cygni. This phenomenon is known as ‘light echos.’
What do the black hole rings tell us?
Using these rings, astronomers can better understand the landscape between the Earth and Cygni. As per NASA’s research, the ring’s diameter can reveal the distance to the dust clouds upon which the light bounced off. Hence, the high-energy ring appears larger when the cloud is close to the earth. Similarly, they appear much smaller when the cloud is far away from earth. “The light echoes appear as narrow rings rather than wide rings or haloes because the X-ray burst lasted only a relatively short period,” explained NASA.
