APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Black Hole Accreting with Jet
Explanation: What happens when a black hole devours a star? Many details remain unknown, but observations are providing new clues. In 2014, a powerful explosion was recorded by the ground-based robotic telescopes of the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (Project ASAS-SN), with followed-up observations by instruments including NASA 's Earth-orbiting Swift satellite . Computer modeling of these emissions fit a star being ripped apart by a distant supermassive black hole . The results of such a collision are portrayed in the featured artistic illustration . The black hole itself is a depicted as a tiny black dot in the center. As matter falls toward the hole , it collides with other matter and heats up . Surrounding the black hole is an accretion disk of hot matter that used to be the star, with a jet emanating from the black hole's spin axis .
Fall towards eternity: It's Black Hole Week at NASA!
| Date | May 7, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Illustration Credit: NASA , Swift , Aurore Simonnet ( Sonoma State U. ) |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |