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Black Hole in NGC 1600
This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole's event horizon, where no light can escape the massive object's gravitational grip. The black hole's powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as the as the starlight skims by the black hole.
- Release DateApril 6, 2016
- Science ReleaseBehemoth Black Hole Found in an Unlikely Place
- CreditsSimulation: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (Space Telescope Science Institute); Acknowledgment for Omega Centauri Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team; Science: NASA, ESA, C.-P. Ma (University of California, Berkeley), and J. Thomas (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany)
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A View of the Giant Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1600
The massive elliptical galaxy in the center of this image, taken by the Digitized Sky Survey, resides in an uncluttered region of space. A close-up view of the galaxy, called NGC 1600, is shown in the inset image, which was taken in near-infrared light by the Hubble Space...
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Last Updated
Feb 25, 2025
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Media
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
