doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02828-3
Credibility: 989
#black hole”s jets
Black holes are the most extreme objects in the Universe
They can launch jets of plasma at speeds close to the speed of light, with such great energy that many scientists considered these jets one of the most powerful phenomena in the cosmos.
Now, a new study reveals something surprising: even the simple wind of a star can compete with this force and even shape the behavior of these jets.
The system studied is Cygnus X-1, the first black hole discovered by humanity.
It has about 21 times the mass of the Sun, but is compressed into a space of only 100 kilometers.
The black hole orbits a supergiant star almost 40 times more massive than the Sun, completing an orbit every 5.6 days.
For about 20,000 years, it has been feeding on the strong wind that this star blows.
Some of this material falls into the black hole, crossing the event horizon.
The rest is launched in narrow, ultra-fast jets that extend for 16 light-years.
These jets have already inflated a huge bubble of hot gas in the surrounding space.
What the researchers discovered is that the wind from the companion star is extremely powerful: it loses 100 million times more mass than the solar wind and blows at three times the speed.
Using telescopes combined thousands of kilometers apart-the same technique that produced the first image of a black hole-the scientists obtained extremely high-resolution images of the jets.
They observed that the star’s wind pushes and bends the black hole’s jets, making them “dance” according to the system’s orbital motion.
By modeling this motion, it was possible to measure, for the first time, the instantaneous power of these jets: it is equivalent to the energy of 10,000 Suns.
This discovery helps to better understand how black holes use their energy.
Not all matter that falls into them is swallowed; A significant portion is returned to space by the jets, influencing the surrounding gas and even the evolution of galaxies.
Measuring this power allows us to balance the black hole’s “energy budget” and improve simulations of the Universe.
In short, the study shows that the most energetic jets in the cosmos are not isolated: they are shaped by their surrounding environment.
Observing this “cosmic dance” in Cygnus X-1 gives us a new perspective on how black holes influence the evolution of the Universe.
Published in 04/17/2026 09h45
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption. Information about DOI, author and institution can be found in the body of the article.
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