Curiosmos
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists
No Result
View All Result
Like us on Facebook
Curiosmos
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists
No Result
View All Result
Curiosmos
No Result
View All Result

Something Escaped a Distant Black Hole at Nearly the Speed of Light and NASA Observed It 

Ivan PetricevicbyIvan Petricevic
May 30, 2020 - Updated on March 3, 2023
in Editor's Picks
A supermassive black hole is depicted in this artist's concept, surrounded by a swirling disk of material falling onto it. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A supermassive black hole is depicted in this artist's concept, surrounded by a swirling disk of material falling onto it. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

10,000 light-years away, there’s a black hole and a companion star. Together, these two comic objects are from the so-called MAXI J1820 + 070 system. This specific black hole was observed by NASA’s Chandra x-ray telescope, which spotted hot matter exiting the black hole at nearly the speed of light.

X-ray observations with NASA’s Chandra Space Telescope have captured a black hole on video, launching hot material into space at nearly the speed of light.

According to astronomers, the black hole in the MAXI J1820 + 070 system has a mass about eight times greater than that of the sun, making it a so-called stellar-mass black hole formed by the destruction of a massive star. This is in contrast to supermassive black holes that contain millions or billions of times the mass of the sun.

The companion star that orbits the black hole has about half the mass of the sun. The black hole’s strong gravity moves the companion star’s material toward an X-ray emitting disk that surrounds the black hole.

Related Posts

Shutterstock.

Astronomers Find a “Massive, Dense Structure” Beneath the Largest Crater on the Moon

June 11, 2019 - Updated on January 22, 2024
Apollo 11's view of the Earth from the Moon. Now, NASA aims to send missions to the far side of the satellite for the first time in its history. Credit: NASA

Can You Really See Stars From the Moon’s Surface?

December 3, 2024

While some of the hot gas in the disk will cross the “event horizon” (the point of no return) and fall within the black hole, some of it is ejected from the black hole in a couple of short beams of jets. These jets point in opposite directions launched from outside the event horizon along magnetic field lines.

The new footage of this black hole’s behavior is based on Chandra’s four observations in November 2018 and February, May, and June 2019. It is reported in a study led by Mathilde Espinasse of the University of Paris, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The below video by NASA shows what the telescope spotted.

The image below shows a large optical and infrared image of the Milky Way galaxy from the PanSTARRS optical telescope in Hawaii, with MAXI J1820 + 070 on the plane the galaxy marked by a cross. Inset shows a film that runs through Chandra’s four observations, where “day 0” corresponds to the first observation on November 13, 2018, approximately four months after the jet was launched.

A GIF image showing what CHANDRA observed. Image Credit: NASA.
A GIF image showing what CHANDRA observed. Image Credit: NASA.

MAXI J1820 + 070 is the bright X-ray source in the center of the image, and X-ray sources can be seen moving away from the black hole in jets north and south. MAXI J1820 + 070 is an X-ray point source, although it appears larger than a point source because it is much brighter than jet sources. The southern jet is too weak to be detected in observations from May and June 2019.

So, how fast are the jets of material speeding away from the black hole? From Earth’s perspective, it appears that the northern jet is moving at 60% the speed of light, while the south is traveling at 160% the speed of light, which sounds impossible. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, right?

This is an example of a phenomenon called superluminal motion, which occurs when something travels towards us near the speed of light, in a direction close to our line of sight. This means that the object travels almost as fast toward us as the light it generates, giving the illusion that the jet’s movement is faster than the speed of light.

In the case of MAXI J1820 + 070, the south jet is pointing towards us, and the north jet is pointing away from us, so the southern plane seems to move faster than the north. According to Chandra, only two other examples of such high-speed X-ray ejections of stellar-mass black holes have been posted so far.


Join the discussion and participate in awesome giveaways in our mobile Telegram group. Join Curiosmos on Telegram Today. t.me/Curiosmos

Share157Tweet98Share27ShareSend
Ivan Petricevic

Ivan Petricevic

I've been writing passionately about ancient civilizations, history, alien life, and various other subjects for more than eight years. You may have seen me appear on Discovery Channel's What On Earth series, History Channel's Ancient Aliens, and Gaia's Ancient Civilizations among others.

Related Posts

An ancient Inca wall at the city of Machu Picchu. Shutterstock.
Editor's Picks

Did ancient builders know how to earthquake-proof stone structures?

May 5, 2025
A photograph of the ancient underground city of Nushabad. Depositphotos.
Editor's Picks

Ancient 18km-long tunnels found in Iran are likely part of an underground city

October 12, 2022 - Updated on January 9, 2025
Fossil discovery suggests pyramids and Sphinx were submerged in ancient floodwaters
Editor's Picks

Fossil discovery suggests pyramids and Sphinx were submerged in ancient floodwaters

March 10, 2019 - Updated on April 19, 2025
A photograph of the ocean. Credit: Shutterstock
Editor's Picks

This Video Shows How Deep the Ocean Truly is and it Will Blow Your Mind

October 30, 2020 - Updated on January 21, 2024
How Did Life Begin on Earth
Editor's Picks

How Did Life Begin on Earth?

September 17, 2024
An aerial view of the Amazonian Rainforest. Shutterstock.
Editor's Picks

Evidence of 10,000-Year-Old Terraforming in the Amazon

April 9, 2020 - Updated on January 21, 2024
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Fair Use Notice
  • DMCA / Removal
  • Impressum
  • Contact
  • Fact-Checking Policy
  • Ethics Policy
  • Ownership and Funding Information
  • Impressum
CURIOSMOS.COM

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists