Cygnus X-1 (2009)
Cygnus X-1 is a very famous X-ray binary star system. It consists of a giant blue
star (top) in orbit around what in all likelihood is a — wait for it — black
hole. The black hole steals gas from its giant companion and that gas flows towards
the black hole and then around it — to form what astronomers call an accretion
disc. There is no bridge of matter between the objects, though, because the blue star
is not sufficiently distorted. Instead, the accretion disc is created by material
sucked in from the blue giant's immense stellar wind.
