Cygnus X-1 is located near large active regions of star formation in the Milky Way. An artist’s illustration depicts what astronomers think is happening within the Cygnus X-1 system. Cygnus X-1 is a so-called stellar-mass black hole, a class of black holes that comes from the collapse of a massive star. The black hole pulls material from a massive, blue companion star toward it. This material forms a disk (shown in red and orange) that rotates around the black hole before falling into it or being redirected away from the black hole in the form of powerful jets. A study using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton suggests X-rays emitted by a planet’s host star may provide critical clues to how hospitable a star system could be. Researchers looked at the X-ray brightness from 24 stars with masses similar to the Sun or less, each at least one billion years old. The artist’s illustration depicts one of these older Sun-like stars with a planet in orbit around it, which researchers found to be relatively calm compared to younger stars. The large dark area is a “coronal hole”, a phenomenon associated with low levels of magnetic activity.This artist’s impression shows a close-up view of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M87. Surrounding the black hole in the lower left is hot, infalling material, shown in red. Some of the material escapes the gravitational clutches of the black hole and is expelled at almost the speed of light in a jet, pointing to the upper right. The jet in M87 is only about 17 degrees from our line of sight. Artist’s illustration of a small Saturn-like planet discovered in the system LkCa 15. The planet resides within dense rings of dust and gas that surround a bright yellow star. Material accumulates in a clump and arc-shape, about 60 degrees away from the planet. Note: This illustration is not to scale.This artist’s illustration shows a cross-section of the supermassive black hole and surrounding material in the center of our galaxy. The black sphere in the center represents the event horizon of the black hole, the point of no return from which nothing, not even light, can escape. Looking at the spinning black hole from the side, as depicted in this illustration, the surrounding spacetime is shaped like a football. The yellow-orange material to either side represents gas swirling around the black hole. This material inevitably plunges towards the black hole and crosses the event horizon once it falls inside the football shape. The area inside the football shape but outside the event horizon is therefore depicted as a cavity. The blue blobs show jets firing away from the poles of the spinning black hole.New observations of WASP-39b with the James Webb Space Telescope have provided a clearer picture of the exoplanet, showing the presence of sodium, potassium, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere. This artist’s illustration also displays newly detected patches of clouds scattered across the planet. Active star, nearby exoplanet, and inactive companion star for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
