Tuesday, September 14, 2010

APOD 1.2


This is a picture of what astronomers believe to be a black hole. Black holes are very hard to photograph, as such there has never been a direct photograph of one. So far, this is the closest they can go. The red outside is a spinning whirlpool of hot gas, rotating very fast. In the middle is the giveaway for a black hole, the bright light emitted from the center of the whirlpool. It has also been estimated that this particular black hole is very large, with a mass seven times that of the sun.

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