Black holes are pretty tough to get accurate measures on. Their activity, and the fact that they absorb light, makes it a difficult process. However the first black hole ever discovered in the Cygnus X-1 revealed, has revealed key measurements such as its distance and mass.
This black hole was first discovered back in 1972. Getting an accurate measurement on its distance has made it difficult to measure other pieces of data such as the weight and rotation.
A team recently using the radio telescopes of the Very Long Baseline Array, found the distance to be around 1.86 kiloparsecs away. Or 6063.6 light years. Shifts in its position were measured in accordance of the Earth’s rotation around the sun. A mass was revealed to be that 14.8 times that of our sun.
Wide-field radio image of the environment of the black hole system Cygnus X-1. The cross marks the location of the black hole.
An X-ray binary system is made up of a companion star and a collapsed star such as a white dwarf, neutron star or black hole which pulls plasma and gas from the companion star.
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