{"id":588532,"date":"2026-04-16T22:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588532\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T22:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:04:08","slug":"astronomers-measure-the-power-and-speed-of-black-hole-jets-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588532\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers measure the power and speed of black hole jets for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets<\/a> blasting from a black hole<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The jet power from this relatively close black hole-star system is equivalent to 10,000 suns, an international research team reported Thursday. They also tracked the jet speed: roughly 355 million mph (540 million kph) \u2014 half the speed of light<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Located 7,200 light-years away, Cygnus X-1 features not only a black hole \u2014 the first one ever identified more than a half-century ago \u2014 but a blue supergiant star, its constant companion. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).<\/p>\n

The University of Oxford\u2019s Steve Prabu and his team based their findings on 18 years of high-resolution radio imaging obtained by a global telescope network. He conducted the research while still at Australia\u2019s Curtin University, which led the study published in Nature Astronomy. <\/p>\n

Prabu and his colleagues were able to measure the swift power of these \u201cdancing jets\u201d as he calls them, as they were pushed in opposite directions by the star\u2019s wind. The group based its calculations on how much the jets were bent by the stellar wind as well as computer modeling.<\/p>\n

Until now, a black hole\u2019s jet power had to be averaged over tens of thousands of years, the researchers said.<\/p>\n

Prabu said a key finding is that 10% of all the energy released as matter falls toward the black hole is carried away by the jets.<\/p>\n

On the skimpy side as black holes go, the one in Cygnus X-1 is continually pulling gases from its stellar playmate as they orbit one another. Discovered in the 1960s, the binary system is located in our Milky Way\u2019s Cygnus, or swan, constellation.<\/p>\n

The supergiant star feeds material to the black hole, giving it \u201csomething to \u2018eat\u2019 and launch as jets,\u201d Prabu said in an email.<\/p>\n

These jets can help scientists better understand how black holes help shape galaxies and other cosmic structures through large-scale shocks and turbulence. <\/p>\n

Prabu plans to apply similar techniques to other black holes. \u201cIt would be exciting to measure jet power in many more systems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets blasting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[6626,793,79,193,9175,1507,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-588532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astronomy","9":"tag-general-news","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-space-exploration","13":"tag-stars","14":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}