The Hajinian Grocery Store - kingzucchini: The Night Before Christmas, I...

kingzucchini:

The Night Before Christmas, I Discover a Black Hole. Cygnus X-1It was the night before Christmas, and after dinner and family fun time, I took my copy of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky outside. It was a clear night. Where my parents live, there isn’t a lot of light pollution. I cracked the book to the section on the December sky. Start with what you know, right? The Bigger Dipper was below the horizon. Orion was behind a neighbor’s house. Cassiopeia was clearly visible directly above me. It was more of an M than a W. Using the charts, my eyes traveled south to three bright stars in a triangle, then three more stars trailing down the middle to the horizon. Cygnus, the Swan. Also known as the Northern Cross. Cygnus was setting, meaning it was pointed upside down on its flight below the horizon. From this perspective it looked like a bungee jumper, legs close together, arms straight out wide. The star at the top, the head of the jumper, that’s Deneb. According to my book, that’s part of the Summer Triangle, with Vega and Altar. Reading those names out loud felt so sci-fi.There are four stars that make up the body of the jumper. Next to the third star down is Cygnus X-1, famed X-ray source and possible BLACK HOLE. A black hole. In the night sky. I can point at it. I can point it out. When I got back inside and warmed up, I did a little further research. Cygnus X-1 has an event horizon, or point of no return, of about 16 miles. It’s 6,100 light years away. Which means, you can travel 35,859,614,776,420,012 miles to visit it, just make sure you don’t go the last 16. Using the internet (cheating), I discovered Kepler 22-b is also in Cygnus. If you haven’t been following astronomical news, it’s a recently discovered planet that revolves around a star like our sun, and has a possible life-supporting orbit. It’s twice our size, and only 600 light years (3,527,175,223,910,165 miles) away. Neighbors, really.At some point in the future, you can point to Cygnus at then tell your great-great-great-grandkids that a rocket ship is on its way there. And then you can point out the BLACK HOLE.
The next night, I took my wife outside to show her Cygnus X-1. While I was explaining the location of Deneb, and the walk down to the black hole, we saw a shooting star. Technically, it was an Ursid.

The Night Before Christmas, I Discover a Black Hole.
Cygnus X-1

It was the night before Christmas, and after dinner and family fun time, I took my copy of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky outside. It was a clear night. Where my parents live, there isn’t a lot of light pollution.

I cracked the book to the section on the December sky. Start with what you know, right? The Bigger Dipper was below the horizon. Orion was behind a neighbor’s house. Cassiopeia was clearly visible directly above me. It was more of an M than a W.

Using the charts, my eyes traveled south to three bright stars in a triangle, then three more stars trailing down the middle to the horizon. Cygnus, the Swan. Also known as the Northern Cross. Cygnus was setting, meaning it was pointed upside down on its flight below the horizon. From this perspective it looked like a bungee jumper, legs close together, arms straight out wide. The star at the top, the head of the jumper, that’s Deneb. According to my book, that’s part of the Summer Triangle, with Vega and Altar. Reading those names out loud felt so sci-fi.

There are four stars that make up the body of the jumper. Next to the third star down is Cygnus X-1, famed X-ray source and possible BLACK HOLE. A black hole. In the night sky. I can point at it. I can point it out.

When I got back inside and warmed up, I did a little further research. Cygnus X-1 has an event horizon, or point of no return, of about 16 miles. It’s 6,100 light years away. Which means, you can travel 35,859,614,776,420,012 miles to visit it, just make sure you don’t go the last 16.

Using the internet (cheating), I discovered Kepler 22-b is also in Cygnus. If you haven’t been following astronomical news, it’s a recently discovered planet that revolves around a star like our sun, and has a possible life-supporting orbit. It’s twice our size, and only 600 light years (3,527,175,223,910,165 miles) away. Neighbors, really.

At some point in the future, you can point to Cygnus at then tell your great-great-great-grandkids that a rocket ship is on its way there.

And then you can point out the BLACK HOLE.

The next night, I took my wife outside to show her Cygnus X-1. While I was explaining the location of Deneb, and the walk down to the black hole, we saw a shooting star. Technically, it was an Ursid.