X-ray images of giant rings show how dust is distributed in our galaxy: it doesn't look like
The black hole in the picture is part of a binarysystem V404 Cygni: it is located approximately 7.8 thousand light years from Earth. The black hole actively attracts particles from its companion star. This dust glows in X-rays, which is why astronomers call these systems “X-ray binaries.”
June 5, 2015 astronomers through the Swift telescopedetected a burst of X-rays from the V404 Cygni system. Due to the explosion, rings of high energy were formed, in other words a light echo. The light echo around V404Cygni was created when a burst of X-rays from a black hole system bounced off dust rings located between V404 Cygni and Earth.
Dust rings tell astronomers more than justabout the behavior of a black hole, but also provide information about what is happening between V404 Cygni and Earth. For example, the diameter of the rings indicates the distances to the intervening dust clouds from which the light ricocheted. If the cloud is closer to the Earth, then the ring appears larger, and vice versa.
Researchers have also used rings toresearch into the properties of the dust clouds themselves. They compared their X-ray spectra, that is, the brightness of X-rays at a range of wavelengths, with computer models of dust of different compositions. Different dust compositions can cause X-rays to simply be absorbed, so the telescope cannot transmit information.
The team determined that the dust in the image was more likelyin total, consists of a mixture of graphite and silicate grains. In addition, the density of dust clouds is not the same, although previous studies have suggested that this is not the case.
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