Artist's Illustration of Sgr A* (IMAGE)

Chandra X-ray Center

Artist's Illustration of Sgr A*

Caption

This artist's illustration shows the environment around Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole found some 26,000 light years away at the center of our Galaxy. The red disk depicts hot gas that has been captured by the black hole and is being pulled inwards. The source of the hot gas is young, massive stars, shown in blue, orbiting around Sgr A*. The illustration also shows a large amount of material being thrown outwards, a key factor in explaining why there is so little radiation from material near black holes.

Credit

NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

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