Nov 2, 2024
In the constellation of Cygnus, some 7,800 light-years from Earth, lurks a real space oddity.
In the constellation of Cygnus, some 7,800 light-years from Earth, lurks a real space oddity. There, a black hole in a system named V404 Cygni repeatedly engages in behavior that has simultaneously baffled and delighted scientists. Now it's whipped a brand new trick out of its seemingly endless arsenal: an unseen binary companion, a star on a wide orbit of around 70,000 years. Since V404 Cygni already has a companion – a star on a close, 6.5-day orbit, on which the central black hole is leisurely feasting – the newly discovered third object makes the system a trinary.
Continue Reading.
