Black Hole Visualization (Animation) (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Black Hole Visualization (Animation)

Caption

Seen nearly edgewise, the turbulent disk of gas churning around a black hole takes on a crazy double-humped appearance. The black hole's extreme gravity alters the paths of light coming from different parts of the disk, producing the warped image. The black hole's extreme gravitational field redirects and distorts light coming from different parts of the disk, but exactly what we see depends on our viewing angle. The greatest distortion occurs when viewing the system nearly edgewise. View animated GIF: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/bh_accretiondisk_sim_stationary_websize.gif Download additional multimedia in HD: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13326

Credit

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman

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