Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found the fastest wind yet discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole. The winds are moving at ab
out 20 million mph, nearly 10 times faster than ever previously recorded. The black hole is a binary system in which a sun-like star orbits it. It is found in the bulge of the Milky Way galaxy, about 28,000 light years away from Earth.
Stellar-mass black holes are born when giant stars collapse. They typically have between five and ten times the mass of the sun. The wind speed in IGR J17091(the stellar-mass blake hole) matches some of the fastest winds generated by super-massive black holes, objects millions or billions of times more massive. The astronomers also found that the wind may be carrying away more material than the black hole is capturing. The high speed for the wind was estimated from a spectrum made by Chandra in 2011. Ions emit and absorb distinct features in spectra, which allow scientists to monitor them and their behavior. A Chandra spectrum of iron ions made two months earlier showed no evidence of the high-speed wind, meaning the wind likely turns on and off over time. This result has importance for understanding how this type of black hole behaves.
This article interested me because I had no idea that there could be weather like this, and even less so in space. I was also fascinated to learn how it is possible to measure wind speeds in space.
It's amazing that it's as powerful as a supermassive black hole
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