{"id":201183,"date":"2024-12-10T14:35:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T20:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/the-first-observed-black-hole-is-50-larger-than-previous-thought-and-spins-faster-than-any-others"},"modified":"2024-12-10T14:35:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T20:35:49","slug":"the-first-observed-black-hole-is-50-larger-than-previous-thought-and-spins-faster-than-any-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/the-first-observed-black-hole-is-50-larger-than-previous-thought-and-spins-faster-than-any-others","title":{"rendered":"The first observed black hole is 50% larger than previous thought, and spins faster than any others"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-right: 20px\"><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/the-first-observed-black-hole-is-50-larger-than-previous-thought-and-spins-faster-than-any-others.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b><strong>Distance, Mass, and Advanced Observations<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n<p>To refine the measurements of Cygnus X-1, astronomers used parallax\u2014a 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s orbital period, these findings provided the recalculated mass of Cygnus X-1\u2019s black hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Distance, Mass, and Advanced Observations To refine the measurements of Cygnus X-1, astronomers used parallax\u2014a 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 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}