Animation showing what the MCG-6-30-15 black hole system may be like
Date: 22 October 2001
Copyright: Courtesy of NASA/HONEYWELL MAX-Q digital group/Dana Berry
Black holes are extremely compact objects with gravitational fields so intense that nothing - not even light - can escape their attraction. Material in the vicinity of the black hole is drawn in, spiralling towards the centre, in the process forming a fast rotating accretion disc where friction causes the material to glow strongly in X-rays.
Last Update: 1 September 2019