Raaaays and rings and… Cygni, Cygni⁣ ⁣ 7,800 light years away from Earth, a black hole in a binary system called V404 Cygni pulls matter from a nearby companion star, forming it into a disk around itself. This process creates the light echoes we see here, appearing as blue concentric rings against a field of stars.⁣ ⁣ As the black hole pulls in star matter, X-rays are emitted. These X-rays travel through space, passing through dust clouds that scatter some of the X-rays toward us. Depending on the content of the dust clouds, different amounts of the X-rays will be absorbed and not detected with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, just like how different parts of our bodies absorb different amounts of X-rays.⁣ ⁣ By comparing the brightness of the X-rays to computer models of dust with different compositions, researchers determined that the dust between V404 Cygni and Earth most likely contains mixtures of graphite and silicate grains.⁣ ⁣ Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Wisc-Madison/S. Heinz et al....