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Credit & Copyright: Alain Riazuelo
Explanation:
What would you see if you went right up to a black hole?
Featured is a
computer generated image highlighting how strange things would look.
The black hole
has such strong gravity that light is noticeably bent towards it -
causing some very unusual
visual distortions.
Every star in the normal frame has at least two bright
images -
one on each side of the
black hole.
Near the
black hole, you can see the whole sky - light from
every direction is bent
around
and comes back to you.
The original background map was taken from the
2MASS
infrared sky survey, with stars from the
Henry Draper
catalog superposed.
Black holes
are thought to be the
densest state of matter, and there is
indirect evidence
for their presence in
stellar binary systems and the centers of
globular clusters,
galaxies, and
quasars.
Gallery:
Thursday's Partial
Solar Eclipse
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: black hole - gravitational lens
Publications with words: black hole - gravitational lens
See also: