ANATOMY OF A BLACK HOLE

DOPPLER BEAMING

Light from glowing gas in the accretion disc is brighter on the side where material is moving towards us, and fainter where it’s moving away

ACCRETION DISC HABITABLE ZONE

The orbit of a potentially habitable planet (blue region) warmed by the accretion disc

ACCRETION DISC

Hot, thin, rotating disc (orange bands) formed by matter spiralling towards the black hole

FAR SIDE OF ACCRETION DISC

The black hole’s gravity alters the path of light from the far side of the disc

CMB HABITABLE ZONE

The orbit of a potentially habitable planet (blue ring) warmed by lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)

PHOTON RING

This ring of light is composed of multiple distorted images of the disc. The images become fainter closer to the black hole

EVENT HORIZON

The ‘point of no return’, from which nothing, not even light, escapes

BLACK HOLE SHADOW

Roughly twice the size of the event horizon, the shadow is formed by the black hole’s capture of light rays and gravitational lensing

UNDERSIDE OF ACCRETION DISC

Light rays from the far side of the disc are distorted by gravitational lensing to produce this image