Cygnus X-1 contains a 21-solar mass black hole-Implications for massive star winds

Miller-Jones JC, Bahramian A, Orosz JA, Mande I, Gou L, Maccarone TJ, Neijsse CJ, Zhao X, Ziółkowski J, Reid MJ, Uttley P, Zheng X, Byun DY, Dodson R, Grinberg V, Jung T, Kim JS, Marcote B, Markoff S, Rioja MJ, Rushton AP, Russell DM, Sivakoff GR, Tetarenko AJ, Tudose V, Wilms J (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Book Volume: 371

Pages Range: 1046-1049

Journal Issue: 6533

DOI: 10.1126/science.abb3363

Abstract

The evolution of massive stars is influenced by the mass lost to stellar winds over their lifetimes. These winds limit the masses of the stellar remnants (such as black holes) that the stars ultimately produce. We used radio astrometry to refine the distance to the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, which we found to be 2:220:180:17 kiloparsecs. When combined with archival optical data, this implies a black hole mass of 21.2 ± 2.2 solar masses, which is higher than previous measurements. The formation of such a high-mass black hole in a high-metallicity system (within the Milky Way) constrains wind mass loss from massive stars.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research Australia (AU) San Diego State University United States (USA) (US) Monash University Australia (AU) National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences / 中国科学院国家天文台 (NAOC) China (CN) Texas Tech University (TTU) United States (USA) (US) Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences Poland (PL) Smithsonian Institution United States (USA) (US) University of Amsterdam Netherlands (NL) Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) Korea, Republic of (KR) Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Germany (DE) New York University Abu Dhabi (NYU Abu Dhabi) United Arab Emirates (AE) University of Alberta Canada (CA) East Asian Observatory (EAO) United States (USA) (US) Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) Netherlands (NL) National Institute for Laser, Plasma & Radiation Physics (INFLPR) Romania (RO) University of Oxford United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Miller-Jones, J.C., Bahramian, A., Orosz, J.A., Mande, I., Gou, L., Maccarone, T.J.,... Wilms, J. (2021). Cygnus X-1 contains a 21-solar mass black hole-Implications for massive star winds. Science, 371(6533), 1046-1049. https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abb3363

MLA:

Miller-Jones, James C.A., et al. "Cygnus X-1 contains a 21-solar mass black hole-Implications for massive star winds." Science 371.6533 (2021): 1046-1049.

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