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Image shows rings around a black hole

The black hole is about 7,800 light years away from Earth.

There may be nothing in space that sparks imagination like the idea of a black hole and its event horizon.

In this NASA X-ray image, “giant rings reveal information about dust located in our galaxy, using a similar principle to the X-rays performed in doctor’s offices and airports.”

The black hole is part of a binary system that is about 7,800 light years away from Earth.

The black hole is actively pulling material away from a companion star — with about half the mass of the Sun — into a disk around the invisible object. This material glows in X-rays, so astronomers refer to these systems as “X-ray binaries.”

But what is a black hole?

A black hole is an astronomical object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it… Matter and radiation fall in, but they can’t get out… Once born, black holes can grow by accreting matter that falls into them, including gas stripped from neighboring stars and even other black holes.

In May, researchers operating the Event Horizon Telescope released the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

On 10 April 2019, scientists released the first photograph of a black hole.

#scitech, #space (148/365)
📷 NASA
Daily posts, 2022-2023

By Kathy E. Gill

Digital evangelist, speaker, writer, educator. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles! @kegill

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