New Study: Black Hole May Be Larger Than Expected - VOA Learning English

A recent study found that the first black hole ever discovered is a lot bigger than scientists first thought.

The black hole, Cygnus X-1, was discovered in 1964.

They can be millions of times more massive than the sun.

The black hole brings in material that comes from the surface of the star that it orbits.

This star is a “blue supergiant,” a very large star about 40 times our sun’s mass.

Cygnus X-1 started to exist 4 million to 5 million years ago as a star up to 75 times more massive than the sun.

After Cygnus X-1 was first identified as a possible black hole, a friendly bet was made between two physicists, Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne.

Hawking bet against the object being a black hole, while Thorne bet that it was one.

Hawking eventually admitted that the evidence suggested Cygnus X-1 was a black hole.