![\"An](\"https:\/\/twistedsifter.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load-0.7\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" "\\"A"){kind=spacer}
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Pixabay<\/p>\n
They\u2019re as unending as they are inescapable, and these are two of the factors that make black holes \u2013 the bizarre astrophysical phenomenon whereupon everything that passes the event horizon both cannot escape and essentially gets turned into infinite spaghetti \u2013 quite scary.<\/p>\n
Thankfully from the position we occupy on Earth, we\u2019re not vulnerable to any black holes, with the closest (Gaia BH1) being over 1,500 light years away.<\/p>\n
And as a result we can observe and hypothesise about them with just the appropriate amount of trepidation.<\/p>\n
Across our planet, there are many, many individuals doing just that \u2013 and thanks to a recent study from an international team of researchers, we\u2019ve recently gained a better understanding of black holes than ever before.<\/p>\n
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Pixabay<\/p>\n
In the study, the physicists used a telescope on a huge balloon known as XL-Calibur to observe a black hole \u2013 Cygnus X-1 \u2013 which is roughly 7,000 light years away from Earth (and thus, notoriously difficult to observe).<\/p>\n
The hugely advanced telescope balloon was intended to comprehend the direction of vibrations in the electromagnetic field of the black hole, through one means which humans can observe \u2013 the polarization of light \u2013 as researcher Ephraim Gau explained in a statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cIf we try to find Cyg X-1 in the sky, we\u2019d be looking for a really tiny point of X-ray light. Polarization is thus useful for learning about all the stuff happening around the black hole when we can\u2019t take normal pictures from Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n And the results of the study<\/a>, which were recently published in The Astrophysical Journal\u00a0were groundbreaking.<\/p>\n NASA\/SSC<\/p>\n By gathering the data, the researchers not only contributed the most comprehensive observations of Cygnus X-1 yet, they also proved the effectiveness of XL-Calibur. And their results are just the beginning as researcher Henric Krawczynski continued:<\/p>\n \u201cThe observations we made will be used by scientists to test increasingly realistic, state-of-the-art computer simulations of physical processes close to the black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the team\u2019s next experiment intends to take flight from Antarctica in 2027, to gather more information about black holes and neutron stars.<\/p>\n With this gradually accumulating picture of black holes, the research team hope to unpick some of the many mysteries surrounding these ominous parts of space.<\/p>\n If you found that story interesting, learn more about why people often wake up around 3 AM and keep doing it for life.<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\tCategories: NATURE\/SPACE<\/a>, SCI\/TECH<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n
Tags: \u00b7 black hole<\/a>, Cygnus X-1<\/a>, event horizon<\/a>, Gaia BH1<\/a>, science<\/a>, single topic<\/a>, space<\/a>, space observations<\/a>, spaghettification<\/a>, top<\/a>, universe<\/a>, XL-Calibur<\/a>\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pixabay They\u2019re as unending as they are inescapable, and these are two of the factors that make black…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[67,49,48,179541,35794,41229,66,14091,306,179542,43879,1060,831,179543],"class_list":{"0":"post-431022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-black-hole","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cygnus-x-1","12":"tag-event-horizon","13":"tag-gaia-bh1","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-single-topic","16":"tag-space","17":"tag-space-observations","18":"tag-spaghettification","19":"tag-top","20":"tag-universe","21":"tag-xl-calibur"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}