This image features a spectacular set of rings around a black hole, captured using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The X-ray images of the giant rings reveal information about dust located in our galaxy, using a similar principle to the X-rays performed in doctor's offices and airports.
The black hole is part of a binary system
called V404 Cygni, located about 7,800 light years away from Earth. The black hole is
actively pulling material away from a companion star — with about half the mass
of the Sun — into a disk around the invisible object. This material glows in
X-rays, so astronomers refer to these systems as "X-ray binaries."
Image
Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Wisc-Madison/S. Heinz et al.; Optical/IR:
Pan-STARR
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