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Originally published in Science Express on 24 April 2003
Science 16 May 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5622, pp. 1119 - 1120
DOI: 10.1126/science.1083451
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Reports

Formation of a Black Hole in the Dark

I. Félix Mirabel1,2* and Irapuan Rodrigues1

We show that the black hole in the x-ray binary Cygnus X-1 was formed in situ and did not receive an energetic trigger from a nearby supernova. The progenitor of the black hole had an initial mass greater than 40solar masses, and during the collapse to form the ~10–solar mass black hole of Cygnus X-1, the upper limit for the mass that could have been suddenly ejected is ~1 solar mass, much less than the mass ejected in a supernova. The observations suggest that high-mass stellar black holes may form promptly, when massive stars disappear silently.

1 Service d'Astrophysique–CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
2 Instituto de Astronoméa y Fésica del Espacio/Conicet, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: fmirabel{at}cea.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)