astronomy

MAXI J1659-152

MAXI J1659-152 is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand MAXI J1659-152 rather than just read about it. In short: MAXI J1659-152 is a rapidly rotating black hole/star system, discovered by NASA's Swift space telescope on September 25, 2010. On March 19, 2013, ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the rate of once every 2.4 hours.

Key takeaways

MAXI J1659-152 belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect MAXI J1659-152 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of MAXI J1659-152 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

MAXI J1659-152 is a rapidly rotating black hole/star system, discovered by NASA's Swift space telescope on September 25, 2010. On March 19, 2013, ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the rate of once every 2.4 hours. The black hole and the star orbit their common center of mass. Because the star is the lighter object, it lies farther from this point and has to "travel around its larger orbit at a breakneck speed of two million kilometers per hour", 500 to 600 km/s, or about 20 times Earth's orbital velocity. The star was the fastest moving star ever seen in an X-ray binary system until the discovery of system 47 Tuc X9. On the other hand, the black hole orbits at 'only' 150000 km/h. The black hole in this compact pairing is at least three times more massive than the Sun, while its red dwarf companion star has a mass only 20% that of the Sun. The pair is separated by roughly a million kilometers – for comparison the distance to the Sun from Earth is about 150 million kilometers.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with MAXI J1659-152

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what MAXI J1659-152 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to MAXI J1659-152 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about MAXI J1659-152 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of MAXI J1659-152

In research: MAXI J1659-152 appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses MAXI J1659-152 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: MAXI J1659-152 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Black hole X-ray binaries, Low-mass X-ray binaries, M-type main-sequence stars, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for MAXI J1659-152 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study MAXI J1659-152 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what MAXI J1659-152 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain MAXI J1659-152 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is MAXI J1659-152 in simple terms?

Why does MAXI J1659-152 matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study MAXI J1659-152?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on MAXI J1659-152.