                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2024 May 7
   A swirling blue disk is illustrated with a deep colorful indentation in
   the middle. A light colored jet shoots out of this middle, from a small
   dot that is a black hole. Please see the explanation for more detailed
                                information.

                        Black Hole Accreting with Jet
     Illustration Credit: NASA, Swift, Aurore Simonnet (Sonoma State U.)

   Explanation: What happens when a black hole devours a star? Many
   details remain unknown, but observations are providing new clues. In
   2014, a powerful explosion was recorded by the ground-based robotic
   telescopes of the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (Project
   ASAS-SN), with followed-up observations by instruments including NASA's
   Earth-orbiting Swift satellite. Computer modeling of these emissions
   fit a star being ripped apart by a distant supermassive black hole. The
   results of such a collision are portrayed in the featured artistic
   illustration. The black hole itself is a depicted as a tiny black dot
   in the center. As matter falls toward the hole, it collides with other
   matter and heats up. Surrounding the black hole is an accretion disk of
   hot matter that used to be the star, with a jet emanating from the
   black hole's spin axis.

            Fall towards eternity: It's Black Hole Week at NASA!
                    Tomorrow's picture: space, distorted
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

