On the left, an optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows Cygnus X-1, outlined in a red box. Cygnus X-1 is located near large active regions of star formation in the Milky Way, as seen in this image that spans some 700 light years across. An artist's illustration on the right 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. New studies with data from Chandra and several other telescopes have determined the black hole's spin, mass, and distance with unprecedented accuracy.
According to Science News, the mass of such black holes is an important piece of data for astronomers studying galaxy formation and behavior, as galaxies and black holes are thought to evolve together. Scientists believe that most galaxies have a massive black hole in their centers.
The research team achieved the black hole mass measurement by observing the distribution and motion of formylium and hydrogen cyanide molecules at the galactic center. They then compared those measurements taken by ALMA to a number of models corresponding to different possible black hole masses.
The recent observation results indicate the relationship between SMBH mass and host galaxy properties varies depending on the type of galaxies, which makes it more important to derive the accurate SMBH masses in various types of galaxies.
