In Pics: NASA shares amazing pictures of 22 black holes in Milky way
What is a black hole?
Black holes, as their name implies, do not shine on their own since nothing, including light can escape them. Black holes from when stars with a mass greater than 20 times that of the Sun are born.
Until the year 2015, when the astronomers discovered merging black hole via gravitational waves, the most common techniques to find these ebony enigmas, and the most effective way of doing this was to examine X-rays. (Image Courtesy: NASA)
A0620-00
A0620-00 is the closest-known accreting black hole system.
It's distance is 3,300 light years and its orbital period is 7.8 hours.
The black hole mass and companion mass is 6.6 Suns and 0.5 Suns, respectively. (Image Courtesy: NASA)
GRS 1915
GRS 1915 is the widest-known accreting black hole system.
It's distance is 8,200 light-years and its orbital period is 33.5 days.
The black hole mass and companion mass is 15 Suns and 1.2 Suns, respectively.
(Image Courtesy: NASA)
Cygnus X-1
Cygnus X-1 is the first confirmed black hole.
It's distance is 7,200 light years and its orbital period is 5.6 days.
The black hole mass and companion mass is 21 Suns and 40 Suns, respectively.
(Image Courtesy: NASA)
MAXI J1659
MAXI J1659 is the fastest-known orbit of an accreting black hole.
It's distance is 29,000 light years and its orbital period is 2.4 hours.
The black hole mass and companion mass is 5 Suns and 0.2 Suns, respectively.
(Image Courtesy: NASA)
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