{"id":589588,"date":"2026-04-17T10:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589588\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:42:07","slug":"astronomers-measure-the-mind-blowing-power-and-speed-of-black-hole-jets-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589588\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers measure the mind-blowing power and speed of black hole jets for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFor the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets blasting from a black hole.Video above: Artemis II crew member Jeremy Hansen on flyby moon missionThe 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 \u2014 half the speed of light.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).The University of Oxford&#8217;s 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&#8217;s Curtin University, which led the study published in Nature Astronomy.Prabu and his colleagues were able to measure the swift power of these &#8220;dancing jets&#8221; as he calls them, as they were pushed in opposite directions by the star&#8217;s wind. The group based its calculations on how much the jets were bent by the stellar wind as well as computer modeling.Until now, a black hole&#8217;s jet power had to be averaged over tens of thousands of years, the researchers said.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.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&#8217;s Cygnus, or swan, constellation.The supergiant star feeds material to the black hole, giving it &#8220;something to &#8216;eat&#8217; and launch as jets,&#8221; Prabu said in an email.These jets can help scientists better understand how black holes help shape galaxies and other cosmic structures through large-scale shocks and turbulence.Prabu plans to apply similar techniques to other black holes. &#8220;It would be exciting to measure jet power in many more systems,&#8221; he said.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets blasting from a black hole.<\/p>\n<p>Video above: Artemis II crew member Jeremy Hansen on flyby moon mission<\/p>\n<p>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 \u2014 half the speed of light.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>The University of Oxford&#8217;s 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&#8217;s Curtin University, which led the study published in Nature Astronomy.<\/p>\n<p>Prabu and his colleagues were able to measure the swift power of these &#8220;dancing jets&#8221; as he calls them, as they were pushed in opposite directions by the star&#8217;s wind. The group based its calculations on how much the jets were bent by the stellar wind as well as computer modeling.<\/p>\n<p>Until now, a black hole&#8217;s jet power had to be averaged over tens of thousands of years, the researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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&#8217;s Cygnus, or swan, constellation.<\/p>\n<p>The supergiant star feeds material to the black hole, giving it &#8220;something to &#8216;eat&#8217; and launch as jets,&#8221; Prabu said in an email.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>Prabu plans to apply similar techniques to other black holes. &#8220;It would be exciting to measure jet power in many more systems,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets blasting from a black hole.Video&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[257548,170819,12272,257547,257545,98900,13715,172868,102978,257543,241993,257546,257542,19650,23342,19409,147045,257544,79,136985,193,215395,39711,5006],"class_list":{"0":"post-589588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astronomical-study","9":"tag-binary-system","10":"tag-black-hole","11":"tag-black-hole-jets","12":"tag-blue-supergiant","13":"tag-companion-star","14":"tag-content","15":"tag-cosmic-structures","16":"tag-curtin-university","17":"tag-cygnus-x-1","18":"tag-galaxy-formation","19":"tag-half-the-speed-of-light","20":"tag-jet-power","21":"tag-jets","22":"tag-macnd","23":"tag-milky-way","24":"tag-nature-astronomy","25":"tag-radio-imaging","26":"tag-science","27":"tag-shocks","28":"tag-space","29":"tag-stellar-wind","30":"tag-turbulence","31":"tag-university-of-oxford"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589588","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=589588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}