Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2025 May 4
Spin up of a Supermassive Black Hole Illustration Credit:
,
/
Explanation:
How fast can a black hole spin?
If any object made of regular matter spins too fast -- it breaks apart.
But a might not be able to break apart --
and its maximum spin rate is really unknown.
Theorists usually model rapidly rotating black holes with the
to Einstein's
, which predicts several
and
things.
Perhaps its most easily testable prediction, though, is that matter entering a
should be last seen
orbiting at near the speed of light, as seen from far away.
was tested by NASA's
and ESA's
satellites by observing the supermassive
at the center of
.
The near was
the heating and
of nuclear emissions at the inner edge of the surrounding
.
is an artist's illustration
depicting an accretion disk of normal around a black hole, with a
emanating from the top.
Since matter randomly falling
e
should not spin up a black hole this much,
the NuSTAR and XMM measurements also validate the existence of the
.
Hole New Worlds: Tomorrow's picture: planet lines
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Authors & editors:
() &
() NASA Official: Amber Straughn
.
,
,
; A service of:
at
/
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