"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 black hole’s extreme gravity skews light emitted by different regions of the disk, producing the misshapen appearance. Bright knots constantly form and dissipate in the disk as magnetic fields wind and twist through the churning gas. Nearest the black hole, the gas orbits at close to the speed of light, while the outer portions spin a bit more slowl

112K views · 5.2K reactions | The accretion disk of a black hole. | Cosmoknowledge | Facebook

3.8M views · 10K reactions | An accretion disk is a flattened, circular or elliptical structure that is formed when material falls towards a strong gravitational force, such as a star or a black hole. The black hole’s complex appearance is due to the image of the accretion disk being warped by gravitational lensing into two images: one looping over the black hole and the other under it. . . #space #science #cosmos #black #Blackholefacts | Space Knowledge | Facebook