Distance, Mass, and Advanced Observations

To refine the measurements of Cygnus X-1, astronomers used parallax—a technique that calculates stellar distances based on their apparent motion against the backdrop of distant stars as Earth orbits the Sun. Using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a network of 10 radio telescopes across the United States, researchers tracked the system’s full orbit over six days. They determined that the black hole lies about 7,200 light-years from Earth, significantly farther than the previous estimate of 6,000 light-years.

This updated distance means its blue supergiant companion star is also more massive and brighter than expected, with a mass 40 times that of the Sun. Combined with the black hole’s orbital period, these findings provided the recalculated mass of Cygnus X-1’s black hole.

NASAs new Landolt mission, launching in 2029, will orbit an artificial star around Earth to enhance stellar and planetary measurements.

This will improve the accuracy of stellar brightness calculations by over ten times, aiding in our understanding of planets orbiting these stars and providing insights into dark energy.

The Landolt Mission

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that a new feature in the universe—not a flaw in telescope measurements—may be behind the decade-long mystery of why the universe is expanding faster today than it did in its infancy billions of years ago.

The new data confirms Hubble Space Telescope measurements of distances between nearby stars and galaxies, offering a crucial cross-check to address the mismatch in measurements of the universe’s mysterious expansion. Known as the Hubble tension, the discrepancy remains unexplained even by the best cosmology models.

“The discrepancy between the observed expansion rate of the universe and the predictions of the standard model suggests that our understanding of the universe may be incomplete. With two NASA flagship telescopes now confirming each other’s findings, we must take this [Hubble tension] problem very seriously—it’s a challenge but also an incredible opportunity to learn more about our universe,” said Nobel laureate and lead author Adam Riess, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Thomas J. Barber Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University.

By exploring charged black holes, scientists reveal strange space-time ripples and fractal universes.