Hubble Catches Possible 'Shadow Play' of the Disk Around a Black Hole
Black holes are the universe's monsters: voracious eating machines that swallow anything that ventures near them.
These compact behemoths pull stars and gas into a disk that swirls around them. The feeding generates a prodigious amount of energy, producing a powerful gusher of light from superheated infalling gas.
These disks are so far away that it's nearly impossible to discern any detail about them. But by a quirk of alignment, astronomers may be getting a glimpse of the structure of the disk around the black hole in nearby galaxy IC 5063. The Hubble Space Telescope has observed a collection of narrow bright rays and dark shadows beaming out of the blazingly bright center of the active galaxy.
One possible explanation for the effect is that the dusty disk of material surrounding the black hole is casting its shadow into space. Some light penetrates gaps in the dust ring, creating the bright rays that resemble the floodlights accompanying a Hollywood movie premier. These telltale beams offer clues to the distribution of material near the black hole that is causing the shadow play.
What is fascinating is that we can see the same interplay of light and shadow in our sky at sunset, when the setting Sun casts streaks of bright rays and dark shadows through scattered clouds.
