Distant, Gargantuan Black Hole Spins At Almost The Speed Of Light
Supermassive Black Hole This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. It's surrounded by matter flowing onto the black hole in what is termed an accretion disk. Also shown is an outflowing jet of energetic particles, believed to be powered by the black hole's spin. High energy X-radiation lights up the disk, which reflects it, making the disk a source of X-rays. The reflected light enables astronomers to see how fast matter is swirling in the inner region of the disk, and ultimately to measure the black hole's spin rate. NASA/JPL-CaltechNew telescopic findings help shed light on a black hole physics mystery. Nothing can escape a black hole, even light, because to wrench away from its titanic gravitational pull, you'd have to move faster than light is capable of traveling. And nothing can do that, as far as anyone knows....