jtotheizzoe:

Peer into a Simulated Black Hole

The folks at NASA put together this awesome supercomputer simulation of the inner regions surrounding a black hole.

Stellar gas is accelerated to near-light-speed thanks to the incredible draw of the black hole’s gravity. You know how a hot iron bar will glow red? That’s emission in the visible and infrared regions of light. Gas surrounding a black hole gets so hot that it emits light with MUCH higher energy: X-rays!

Near the center, the event horizon marks where nothing, not even x-rays, can escape the pull of gravity. That’s the dark disk in the center. 

I think this is about as close as I ever want to get to a black hole.

(by NASAexplorer)