Scientists Measure Power And Speed Of A Black Hole And It's Intense

by Aaron Leong — Friday, April 17, 2026, 11:08 AM EDT

A groundbreaking study has finally quantified the kinetic energy of a black hole’s relativistic jets, and TL:DR, they're far more powerful than previously theorized. By observing the Cygnus X-1 binary system in our galaxy, a team from University of Oxford have found that the jet power of a black hole within it is equivalent to 10,000 Suns.

The research, published in the Nature journal, focuses on a stellar-mass black hole located within Cygnus X-1, some 7,200 light years away. As with black holes as we know them, when matter spirals inward, not all of it is swallowed; a significant portion is blasted outward in two opposing jets. Using a combination of X-ray data and radio observations, the team, led by Steve Prabu, determined that these jets are moving at half the speed of light, or roughly 355 million mph. More significantly, they calculated the kinetic power of the jets to be equivalent to the energy output of hundreds of millions of Suns, a scale of force that is difficult to reconcile with the black hole’s relatively small size.

cygnus x1 blackhole1 — *Gamma-ray jet from Cygnus X-1 (Credit: CEA/IRFU)*

The captured data also sheds light on the magnetic environment surrounding the black hole. The researchers found that the magnetic fields within the jet lobes are surprisingly efficient and strong, which helps the jets maintain their narrow, needle-like shape over hundreds of thousands of light-years. This stability allows the energy to be transported far away from the host galaxy, influencing the larger structure of the cosmic web.

This discovery could likewise provide a vital missing piece for cosmological models. Until now, simulations of the universe’s evolution often struggled to explain why large galaxies stopped growing at a certain point. By providing a hard number for jet power, this study confirms that black holes can act as the ultimate governors of galactic evolution, suggesting that the history of every large galaxy is a delicate balance between the gravity pulling matter in and the explosive, jet-driven energy pushing it back out.

Cygnus X-1 was first discovered in 1964 and is one of the strongest X-ray sources in the sky. Recent estimates place the black hole within X-1 at 21.2 times the mass of the Sun.