It's Black Hole Week!

[Control-Z]

NASA Releases Hypnotic GIFs of a Black Hole in Rotation



Off the heels of the first-ever photo of a black hole, NASA has just released incredible new visualizations that are a mesmerizing look at how a black hole’s gravity distorts our view. Across several different perspectives, the visualizations demonstrate how what we consider to be a dark space is actually one of the brightest places in the universe. The GIFs and videos were created by Jeremy Schnittman using custom software from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and were released in conjunction with Black Hole Week.



So what are we looking at? The visualization shows multiple views of the accretion disk, which is created by matter spiraling toward the black hole. The accretion disk slowly rotates, with gravity warping our view. It’s almost as if a funhouse mirror has been aimed at the black hole, causing areas of the disk to bend.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Hooray for Black Hole #2 illustration. Thank you, Control-Z. n/t