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IGR J17091-3624:
NASA'S Chandra Finds Fastest Wind From Stellar-Mass Black Hole
Credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
NASA'S Chandra Finds Fastest Wind From Stellar-Mass Black Hole
Credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
- Chandra observations have found the fastest wind ever coming from a disk around a stellar-mass black hole.
- This record breaking wind is about 20 million miles per hour - about 3% the speed of light.
- This wind may be carrying away much more material than the black hole is actually capturing.
This artist's impression shows a binary system containing a stellar-mass black hole called IGR J17091-3624, or IGR J17091 for short. The strong gravity of the black hole, on the left, is pulling gas away from a companion star on the right. This gas forms a disk of hot gas around the black hole, and the wind is driven off this disk.
New observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have clocked the fastest wind ever seen blowing off a disk around this stellar-mass black hole. Stellar-mass black holes are born when extremely massive stars collapse and typically weigh between five and 10 times the mass of the Sun.
The record-breaking wind is moving about twenty million miles per hour, or about three percent the speed of light. This is nearly ten times faster than had ever been seen from a stellar-mass black hole, and matches some of the fastest winds generated by supermassive black holes, objects millions or billions of times more massive.
Another unanticipated finding is that the wind, which comes from a disk of gas surrounding the black hole, may be carrying away much more material than the black hole is capturing.
The high speed for the wind was estimated from a spectrum made by Chandra in 2011. A spectrum shows how intense the X-rays are at different energies. Ions emit and absorb distinct features in spectra, which allow scientists to monitor them and their behavior. A Chandra spectrum of iron ions made two months earlier showed no evidence of the high-speed wind, meaning the wind likely turns on and off over time.
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Revised: February 21, 2012
Visitor Comments (3)
I am the one and only retired planner from that program; spent three wonderful years developing and then actually delivering our system to Huntsville. It is awesome to know that I contributed so much to Chandra's upbringing! NASA blood still runs thru my veins! Steve Murray was our team leader at that time - I remember holding the flash light deep into the nightime.
Posted by Gene Talford on Monday, 02.27.12 @ 15:29pm
What is causing the stellar wind in this case...the companion star or the Black Hole itself?
A very interesting article, thanks.
Marvin L. S.
Posted by Marvin L. S. on Saturday, 02.25.12 @ 19:24pm
The information that is given here is amazing.
keep it up with this good work.
Posted by Sumit Kashyap on Friday, 02.24.12 @ 12:13pm