This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole's event horizon, where no light can escape the massive object's gravitational grip. The black hole's powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as the as the starlight skims by the black hole.
Credits
Simulation: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (Space Telescope Science Institute);Acknowledgment for Omega Centauri Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team;
Science: NASA, ESA, C.-P. Ma (University of California, Berkeley), and J. Thomas (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany)
