Discovery of continuous infrared winds during the outburst of a black hole

Luminosity - X-ray colour diagram of the black hole MAXI J1820+070 (black, solid line). The different traces indicate wind detections at different wavelengths throughout the entire outburst.
Luminosity - X-ray colour diagram of the black hole MAXI J1820+070 (black, solid line). The different traces indicate wind detections at different wavelengths throughout the entire outburst.
Advertised on
Authors
References
2020 A&A 640 L3

X-ray binaries are stellar systems composed of a compact object (either a stellar-mass black hole or a neutron star) and a donor star that transfers mass to the former. Outflows represent fundamental physical phenomena to understand accretion processes in these systems. Black holes show three types of outflows: radio-jets and optical winds during the hard accretion states, and highly ionised winds observed in X-rays during the soft states. The black hole transient MAXI J1820+070 showed optical winds with velocities up to 1800 km/s during the hard state of its 2018-2019 outburst. In this work we present the discovery of infrared winds that are present throughout the entire outburst of the black hole, that is, during both hard and soft states. This represents the first detection of a state-independent wind in a black hole transient. Furthermore, this near-infrared wind shows similar kinetic properties to the optical one, suggesting that we are observing the same wind, whose visibility varies as a function of the accretion state. This discovery represents a new milestone in our understanding of accretion and its associated outflows in stellar-mass black holes.

News type
Research news
Scope
Science and Technology
Astrophysics
Undergraduate
Scientists
Stellar & Interstellar Physics (FEEI)

It may interest you

  • ESA’s Hera mission lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space /ESA - S. Corvaja
    Press release
    The IAC is participating in the first European planetary defence mission
    Researchers Julia de León and Javier Licandro of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) are participating in the Hera mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) , successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA) on 7th October at 14:52 UTC. This is the first European mission for planetary defence which together with NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid redirection Test) will study the effects of a technique for diverting asteroids called “ kinetic impactor”. The DART probe crashed into the smaller ( Dimorphos) of the two asteroids which form the binary system Didymos, on September
    Advertised on
  • Attendees at the 2025 ExGal-Twin Regional Workshop on European Project Management held at the IACTEC headquarters in Tenerife
    Press release
    The IAC promotes European Project Management with the ExGal-Twin 2025 workshop
    The Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) is promoting knowledge about European project management with a dedicated forum taking place on April 23 and 24 at the IACTEC headquarters in Tenerife. The 2025 ExGal-Twin Regional Workshop on European Project Management is an event organized by the ExGal-Twin project and the Office of Transfer and Institutional Actions (OTAI) of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), under the title "Innovation in European Project Management: Challenges and Opportunities" . The main objective of this workshop is to bring together R&D&I entities
    Advertised on
Go back