Science & Exploration
Artist’s impression of black hole
This artist's impression shows hot gas orbiting in a disc around a rapidly-spinning black hole. The elongated spot depicts an X-ray-bright region in the disc, which allows the spin of the black hole to be estimated.
Studying the black hole devouring a star known as ASASSN-14li with ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory and NASA’s Chandra and Swift X-ray observatories, a team of astronomers has discovered an exceptionally bright and stable signal that allowed them to determine the black hole’s spin rate.
Illustration of X-ray binary with possible planet
Artist’s impression of stellar-mass black hole
Rapidly rotating black hole accreting matter
Black hole with ultrafast winds
