Francesco Carotenuto

The black hole in the binary system V4641 Sagittarii behaves like a giant blender. It sucks in matter from its companion star and flings it back into space in two narrow jets. These jets slam into the surrounding gas like a water jet hitting sand, gradually carving out a huge cavity around the hole.

In the neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, lives the binary system A0538-66. There, a neutron star — a tiny sphere the size of a city but heavier than the Sun — spins on its axis every 69 milliseconds.

A black hole paired with a star works like a pump: it pulls gas from its companion, swirls it into a glowing disk, and occasionally ejects some of that matter in two narrow jets. In 2021, the system 4U 1543-475 put on such a show.