Imagine the Universe!

A large disk of gas around a black hole.
Movie (11.4 MB)

AUDIO:
Here's a story of a pair of stars called Cygnus X-1
One's a black hole many times the mass of the Sun
With a disk of gas surrounding it, spiralling in
Sucked from the companion star's outermost skin
We see the high-speed flickering as star stuff flies in
A one way trip beyond the event horizon

VIDEO:
This video shows the pair of stars Cygnus X-1. One is a black hole with an accretion disk gathering material from the companion star.

Imagine the Universe is a service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Nicholas White (Director), within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

The Imagine Team
Project Leader: Dr. Jim Lochner
All material on this site has been created and updated between 1997-2004.

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