“Until very recently, these visualizations were limited to our imagination and computer programs. “Simulations and movies like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity warps the fabric of space and time,” shares Schnittman. It's twice the size of the black hole's event horizon-the point of no return for matter entering the black hole. At the center of the visualization is the black hole shadow created by gravitational lensing and the trapped light rays. In the visualization it looks circular from any viewing angle because the black hole depicted is spherical. This thin ring is made from light that has orbited the black hole at least two times before escaping. Surrounding the black hole shadow is a bright photon ring. This accounts for the streaks and dark lanes in the accretion disk.Īs we move toward the dark center, there are other areas of note. For instance, the gas nearest to the black hole travels at nearly the speed of light, while the outer sections move more slowly.
The gases also take on different shades depending on how quickly they are rotating. On the right side, the matter moving away from us is slightly dimmer. Thanks to a phenomenon known as doppler beaming, the light appears brighter on the left side of the disk, as that's the matter moving toward us. In astrophysics, spaghettification (sometimes referred to as the noodle effect) is the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes (rather like spaghetti) in a very strong, non-homogeneous gravitational field.It is caused by extreme tidal forces. The streaks of light that swirl around are caused by gas in the accretion disk. It's almost as if a funhouse mirror has been aimed at the black hole, causing areas of the disk to bend. The accretion disk slowly rotates, with gravity warping our view. 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.
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