![]() Glowing gas on the left side of the disk moves toward us so fast that the effects of Einstein’s relativity give it a boost in brightness the opposite happens on the right side, where gas moving away us becomes slightly dimmer. ![]() Viewed from the side, the disk looks brighter on the left than it does on the right. This difference stretches and shears the bright knots, producing light and dark lanes in the disk. Nearest the black hole, the gas orbits at close to the speed of light, while the outer portions spin a bit more slowly. The black hole’s extreme gravity skews light emitted by different regions of the disk, producing the misshapen appearance.īright knots constantly form and dissipate in the disk as magnetic fields wind and twist through the churning gas. The visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole where infalling matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. This new visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping its surroundings as if seen in a carnival mirror. The fact that it was not initially discovered by the NASA scientist who made the movie reflects just how bizarre and counter-intuitive black holes can be!Ĭredit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman This was due to a minor mistake in orienting the camera relative to the disk. This is no different that viewing a clock from behind, which would make it look like the hands are moving counter-clockwise.ĬORRECTION: In earlier versions of the 360-degree movies on this page, these important effects were not apparent. When our viewpoint passes beneath the disk, it looks like the gas is moving in the opposite direction. This effect disappears when we're directly above or below the disk because, from that angle, none of the gas is moving directly toward us. Due to a phenomenon called "relativistic Doppler beaming," gas in the disk that's moving toward us makes that side of the disk appear brighter, the opposite side darker. The greatest distortion occurs when viewing the system nearly edgewise.Īs our viewpoint rotates around the black hole, we see different parts of the fast-moving gas in the accretion disk moving directly toward us. 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. This movie shows a complete revolution around a simulated black hole and its accretion disk following a path that is perpendicular to the disk.
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