Hubble image archive
Illustration of an Isolated Black Hole
This is an illustration of a close-up look at a black hole drifting through our Milky Way galaxy. The black hole is the crushed remnant of a massive star that exploded as a supernova. The surviving core is several times the mass of our Sun. The black hole traps light due to its i...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2022
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2022-001-01fqh8f459eaf121eejys963ny
This is an illustration of a close-up look at a black hole drifting through our Milky Way galaxy. The black hole is the crushed remnant of a massive star that exploded as a supernova. The surviving core is several times the mass of our Sun. The black hole traps light due to its intense gravitational field. The black hole distorts the space around it, which warps images of background stars lined up almost directly behind it. This gravitational "lensing" effect offers the only telltale evidence for the existence of lone black holes wandering our galaxy, which may be a population of 100 million. The Hubble Space Telescope goes hunting for these black holes by looking for distortion in starlight as the black holes drift in front of background stars.
Credits
Image
FECYT, IAC
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Milky Way |
| Object Description | Black hole simulation |
| R.A. Position | 18:06:49.4 |
| Dec. Position | -28:02:28.62 |
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
| Distance | 26,000 light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Instrument | Teide Observatory |
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov