Works of Dr Piotr Lubiński, Prof. of University of Zielona Góra, PhD student Alexandros Filothodorus of the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy and their associates have been awarded by the European Space Agency for the image of the month for the INTEGRAL satellite.
The publication “Distinct Accretion Modes of Cygnus X-1 Revealed from Hard X-Rays” presents the results of their studies of the binary system with a black hole – Cyg X-1, in the constellation Cygnus. The INTEGRAL satellite has taken a lot of very good data in terms of high-energy X-rays. In this energy range, plasma emission dominates, what enables to diagnose better the geometry of this component.
The determined values of the brightness of the system and the inclination of the X-ray spectrum can show six separate structures on the data density diagram, instead of forming an approximately continuous band. This means that the plasma geometry adopts certain specific modes, the cause of which is not known yet.
