Cygnus X-1 contains a 21–solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds

James C. A. Miller-Jones; Arash  Bahramian; Jerome A.  Orosz; Ilya Mandel; Lijun  Gou; T. J. Maccarone; C. Neijssel; Xueshan  Zhao; Janusz  Ziółkowski; Mark J.  Reid; Phil  Uttley; Xueying  Zheng; Do Young Byun; Richard Dodson; Victoria  Grinberg; Taehyun Jung; Sook  Kim; Benito  Marcote; Sera  Markoff; Maria Rioja Capellan; Anthony P.  Rushton; David M.  Russell; Gregory R. Sivakoff; Alexandra J. Tetarenko; Valeriu  Tudose; Joern  Wilms

doi:10.1126/science.abb3363

Cygnus X-1 contains a 21–solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds

James C. A. Miller-Jones, Arash Bahramian, Jerome A. Orosz, Ilya Mandel, Lijun Gou, T. J. Maccarone, C. Neijssel, Xueshan Zhao, Janusz Ziółkowski, Mark J. Reid, Phil Uttley, Xueying Zheng, Do Young Byun, Richard Dodson, Victoria Grinberg, Taehyun Jung, Sook Kim, Benito Marcote, Sera Markoff, Maria Rioja CapellanAnthony P. Rushton, David M. Russell, Gregory R. Sivakoff, Alexandra J. Tetarenko, Valeriu Tudose, Joern Wilms

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

149 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The evolution of massive stars is influenced by the mass lost to stellar winds over their lifetimes. These winds limit the masses of the stellar remnants (such as black holes) that the stars ultimately produce. We use radio astrometry to refine the distance to the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, which we find to be 2.22+0.18−0.17 kiloparsecs. When combined with previous optical data, this implies a black hole mass of 21.2±2.2 solar masses, higher than previous measurements. The formation of such a high-mass black hole in a high-metallicity system constrains wind mass loss from massive stars.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1046–1049
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	371
Issue number	6533
Early online date	18 Feb 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb3363
Publication status	Published - 5 Mar 2021

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10.1126/science.abb3363

https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.09091

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Miller-Jones, J. C. A., Bahramian, A., Orosz, J. A., Mandel, I., Gou, L., Maccarone, T. J., Neijssel, C., Zhao, X., Ziółkowski, J., Reid, M. J., Uttley, P., Zheng, X., Byun, D. Y., Dodson, R., Grinberg, V., Jung, T., Kim, S., Marcote, B., Markoff, S., ... Wilms, J. (2021). Cygnus X-1 contains a 21–solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds. Science, 371(6533), 1046–1049. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb3363

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title = "Cygnus X-1 contains a 21–solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds",

abstract = "The evolution of massive stars is influenced by the mass lost to stellar winds over their lifetimes. These winds limit the masses of the stellar remnants (such as black holes) that the stars ultimately produce. We use radio astrometry to refine the distance to the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, which we find to be 2.22+0.18−0.17 kiloparsecs. When combined with previous optical data, this implies a black hole mass of 21.2±2.2 solar masses, higher than previous measurements. The formation of such a high-mass black hole in a high-metallicity system constrains wind mass loss from massive stars.",

author = "Miller-Jones, {James C. A.} and Arash Bahramian and Orosz, {Jerome A.} and Ilya Mandel and Lijun Gou and Maccarone, {T. J.} and C. Neijssel and Xueshan Zhao and Janusz Zi{\'o}{\l}kowski and Reid, {Mark J.} and Phil Uttley and Xueying Zheng and Byun, {Do Young} and Richard Dodson and Victoria Grinberg and Taehyun Jung and Sook Kim and Benito Marcote and Sera Markoff and {Rioja Capellan}, Maria and Rushton, {Anthony P.} and Russell, {David M.} and Sivakoff, {Gregory R.} and Tetarenko, {Alexandra J.} and Valeriu Tudose and Joern Wilms",

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doi = "10.1126/science.abb3363",

language = "English",

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Miller-Jones, JCA, Bahramian, A, Orosz, JA, Mandel, I, Gou, L, Maccarone, TJ, Neijssel, C, Zhao, X, Ziółkowski, J, Reid, MJ, Uttley, P, Zheng, X, Byun, DY, Dodson, R, Grinberg, V, Jung, T, Kim, S, Marcote, B, Markoff, S, Rioja Capellan, M, Rushton, AP, Russell, DM, Sivakoff, GR, Tetarenko, AJ, Tudose, V & Wilms, J 2021, 'Cygnus X-1 contains a 21–solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds', Science, vol. 371, no. 6533, pp. 1046–1049. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb3363

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cygnus X-1 contains a 21–solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds

AU - Miller-Jones, James C. A.

AU - Bahramian, Arash

AU - Orosz, Jerome A.

AU - Mandel, Ilya

AU - Gou, Lijun

AU - Maccarone, T. J.

AU - Neijssel, C.

AU - Zhao, Xueshan

AU - Ziółkowski, Janusz

AU - Reid, Mark J.

AU - Uttley, Phil

AU - Zheng, Xueying

AU - Byun, Do Young

AU - Dodson, Richard

AU - Grinberg, Victoria

AU - Jung, Taehyun

AU - Kim, Sook

AU - Marcote, Benito

AU - Markoff, Sera

AU - Rioja Capellan, Maria

AU - Rushton, Anthony P.

AU - Russell, David M.

AU - Sivakoff, Gregory R.

AU - Tetarenko, Alexandra J.

AU - Tudose, Valeriu

AU - Wilms, Joern

PY - 2021/3/5

Y1 - 2021/3/5

N2 - The evolution of massive stars is influenced by the mass lost to stellar winds over their lifetimes. These winds limit the masses of the stellar remnants (such as black holes) that the stars ultimately produce. We use radio astrometry to refine the distance to the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, which we find to be 2.22+0.18−0.17 kiloparsecs. When combined with previous optical data, this implies a black hole mass of 21.2±2.2 solar masses, higher than previous measurements. The formation of such a high-mass black hole in a high-metallicity system constrains wind mass loss from massive stars.

AB - The evolution of massive stars is influenced by the mass lost to stellar winds over their lifetimes. These winds limit the masses of the stellar remnants (such as black holes) that the stars ultimately produce. We use radio astrometry to refine the distance to the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, which we find to be 2.22+0.18−0.17 kiloparsecs. When combined with previous optical data, this implies a black hole mass of 21.2±2.2 solar masses, higher than previous measurements. The formation of such a high-mass black hole in a high-metallicity system constrains wind mass loss from massive stars.

U2 - 10.1126/science.abb3363

DO - 10.1126/science.abb3363

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C2 - 33602863

SN - 1095-9203

VL - 371

SP - 1046

EP - 1049

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 6533

ER -

Cygnus X-1 contains a 21–solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds

Abstract

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