At the heart of the new visualization is a supermassive black hole, a cosmic object with a mass millions or billions of times that of the Sun, packed into an incredibly small space. The event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing can escape the black hole’s gravitational pull, is a key feature of this visualization.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this visualization is the way it depicts the effects of the black hole’s intense gravity on the surrounding spacetime. As objects approach the event horizon, they appear to be stretched and distorted, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. This effect is caused by the bending of light as it passes through the intense gravitational field of the black hole.
Accretion Disk and Relativistic Jets
Another prominent feature of the visualization is the accretion disk, a swirling disk of gas and dust that surrounds the black hole. As the material in the accretion disk spirals inward, it is heated to tremendous temperatures and emits a vast amount of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, X-rays, and radio waves.
In addition to the accretion disk, the visualization also depicts the powerful relativistic jets that can be launched from the vicinity of the black hole. These jets are streams of high-energy particles that are ejected at speeds approaching the speed of light, often in opposite directions perpendicular to the plane of the accretion disk.