NASA publishes a new visualization of a black hole that looks gorgeous

Earlier this year, space scientists published the very first image of a black hole located in the heart of Messier 87 (M87), taken with the help of the project Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Although the image itself is one of the greatest achievements of humanity in recent times, it also seems slightly fuzzy and low resolution. This does not explain much of the black hole.

However, NASA has now released a new and amazing visualization of a black hole that illustrates how the gravity of the giant celestial structure distorts our vision and distorts its near environment. The visualization was created by Jeremy Schnittman using custom software from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

In a statement, NASA explained that the new visualization simulated the appearance of a black hole in which the infiltrating material was collected in a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. The extreme gravity of the black hole changes the direction of light emitted by different regions of the disc, thus producing a deformed appearance.

The disc looks brighter on the left than on the right. The shiny gas on the left side of the disc moves so fast that the effects of Einstein's theory of relativity give it a boost in terms of brightness. On the right side, however, the opposite occurs when the glowing gas becomes slightly lower.

The bending of the gravitational light near the black hole becomes so excessive that the underside of the disk resembles a ring of light highlighting the black hole. This "ring of photons" is composed of several rings that thin from the light that surrounds the black hole two, three or even more times before escaping to reach our eyes.

The ring of photons in the new visualization is almost circular and identical under any angle of view. Inside the ring lies the shadow of the black hole, an area about twice as large as the event horizon.

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"Simulations and films like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity distorts the fabric of space and time," says Schnittman in his statement. "Until very recently, these visualizations were limited to our imagination and our computer programs. I never thought that it would be possible to see a real black hole, "he added.