Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The View Near a Black Hole

NASA ^ | March 23, 2014 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole. Studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling gas frequently indicate not only that a black hole is present, but also likely attributes. The gas surrounding GRO J1655-40, for example, has been found to display an unusual flickering at a rate of 450 times a second. Given a previous mass estimate for the central object of seven times the mass of our Sun, the rate of the fast flickering can be explained by a black hole that is rotating very rapidly. What physical mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a slower quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) -- in accretion disks surrounding black holes and neutron stars remains a topic of much research.

[SunkenCiv]

[Illustration Credit: April Hobart, CXC]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

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[left that other site]

Who took THAT Picture? I hope they used a VERY long Zoom.
:-)

[cripplecreek]

Looking into a black hole would be an odd experience due to the distortion of time and space.

An outside observer would see something falling slower and slower till it just stopped but the object would be falling faster and faster.

[rktman]

Pictures from Bejing?

[PreciousLiberty]

Just bear in mind that the innermost part of the accretion disk is far hotter and brighter than the surface of the Sun. A picture like that would have to be taken through a VERY dark filter. ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

:’) In theory.

[jsanders2001]

The pic sort of looks like a fiery lake where brimstone might be found...: )

[left that other site]

Ooooo Yeah.....

[SunkenCiv]

If yu look carefully, you can just make out the missing 777.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3135200/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3135208/posts

[trebb]

Looking into a black hole would be an odd experience due to the distortion of time and space. An outside observer would see something falling slower and slower till it just stopped but the object would be falling faster and faster.

That's because their eyeballs would be stretching faster and faster until they matched the speed of the object under observation. When they finally snap out of the sockets, the object appears to have stopped because of the gravitational neural flux that allows the brain to continue seeing with the disconnected eyes.

I love science....

[KoRn]

They really SHOULDN’T have put this on the APOD.

Indeed it’s rather cool looking, but that wasn’t the place for it.

[MHGinTN]

Um, would that be an ‘inside’ observer? From the outside masses would be orbiting faster and faster until they just winked out of visual perception having zipped apart inside the event horizon. But from the inside temporal flow would appear to slow ... the heart of a black hole maybe the coldest place in the Universe?

[cripplecreek]

Seems counter intuitive but the physicists believe an outside observer would see the object come to a halt. (The object would fade as the light shifted to infrared.)

My friend Penelope is sitting still at a safe distance, watching me fall into the black hole. What does she see?

[TheOldLady]

Great job by April Hobart. You, too!

Thank you.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[TheZMan]

I love how artists continually screw up the “gravity well” by thinking it’s an actual depression in the disc.

Doing so violates the laws of physics by having the upper “rim” of the well orbiting nothing.