CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous power of jets blasting from a black hole, putting hard numbers on a cosmic force that had previously been left to averages stretched over tens of thousands of years. The international research team reported Thursday that the jet power from the relatively close black hole-star system is equivalent to 10,000 suns, while the jet speed came in at roughly 355 million mph (540 million kph), or half the speed of light.
Who Has the Power
The system at the center of the study is Cygnus X-1, located 7,200 light-years away in the Milky Way’s Cygnus, or swan, constellation. It features a black hole and a blue supergiant star, its constant companion. The black hole was the first one ever identified more than a half-century ago, and the binary system was discovered in the 1960s. In the language of the researchers, this is a place where matter is pulled in, redirected, and hurled back out as jets — a reminder that even in space, power concentrates and moves through systems of dependence.
The University of Oxford’s Steve Prabu and his team based their findings on 18 years of high-resolution radio imaging obtained by a global telescope network. Prabu conducted the research while still at Australia’s Curtin University, and the study was published in Nature Astronomy on Thursday, April 16, 2026. The team measured the swift power of the “dancing jets,” as he calls them, while they were pushed in opposite directions by the star’s wind.
What the Researchers Measured
The group based its calculations on how much the jets were bent by the stellar wind as well as computer modeling. Until now, a black hole’s jet power had to be averaged over tens of thousands of years, the researchers said. This time, the measurement captured the instantaneous force of the jets, giving a sharper picture of how the system behaves in real time rather than through a long statistical blur.
Prabu said a key finding is that 10% of all the energy released as matter falls toward the black hole is carried away by the jets. On the skimpy side as black holes go, the one in Cygnus X-1 is continually pulling gases from its stellar playmate as they orbit one another. The supergiant star feeds material to the black hole, giving it “something to ‘eat’ and launch as jets,” Prabu said in an email.
What It Means for the Bigger Picture
Prabu said the jets can help scientists better understand how black holes help shape galaxies and other cosmic structures through large-scale shocks and turbulence. That is the larger frame the study points toward: not just a single system, but the way concentrated forces can ripple outward across vast structures.
Prabu also said he plans to apply similar techniques to other black holes. “It would be exciting to measure jet power in many more systems,” he said. The study’s publication on Thursday marks the latest step in a long-running effort to pin down how black holes launch and energize jets, using the tools of a global telescope network and computer modeling to make visible what had previously only been inferred over enormous spans of time.