The 2D map of this “disk wind” may reveal clues to galaxy formation. MIT astronomers have successfully mapped the vertical shape and structure of disk winds in the Hercules X-1 system, marking the first time such winds have been observed in two dimensions. The team took advantage of the neutron sta
MIT astronomers mapped the “disk winds” associated with the accretion disk around Hercules X-1, a system in which a neutron star is drawing material away from a sun-like star, represented as the teal sphere. The findings may offer clues to how supermassive black holes shape entire galaxies. Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT. Based on an image of Hercules X-1 by D.
“In the future, we could map disk winds in a range of objects and determine how wind properties change, for instance, with the mass of a black hole, or with how much material it is accreting,” says Peter Kosec, a postdoc in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “That will help determine how black holes and neutron stars influence our universe.
In 2020, he and his colleagues realized that one binary system could offer a wider view of disk winds. Hercules X-1 has stood out from most known X-ray binaries for its warped accretion disk, which wobbles as it rotates around the system’s central neutron star. By measuring X-ray emissions and the absorption lines as the disk wobbled and rotated over time, the researchers could scan properties such as the temperature and density of winds at various heights with respect to its disk and construct a two-dimensional map of the wind’s vertical structure.
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