In this simulation, the center of the black hole appears as a dark, empty space, simply because no light is reflected from it, while vibrant colored patterns of purple, pink and orange surround it.

These displays arise as a result of the emission of energy from materials when they fall into the black hole, whether it is gas, dust, or solid matter.

Black holes are powerful sources of gravity, attracting dust, gas, and even planets, and sometimes other black holes. Because of this enormous gravity, if a nearby object falls, it undergoes what is known as the “spaghetti phenomenon,” where it is pulled and stretched by gravitational forces.

The black hole attracts surrounding material to form a bright orange accretion disk orbiting it. This hot disk is the main source of light, allowing scientists to detect black holes in galaxies billions of light-years away.

Scientists have taken high-resolution images of supermassive black holes, whose mass reaches hundreds of millions or billions of times the mass of the Sun. These holes develop over years or centuries and influence the formation of galaxies.

Smaller stellar black holes cannot be detected in the same way, as they appear as tiny points of light. To simulate the accumulation of these holes, the team used the world’s most powerful supercomputers, such as Frontier and Aurora, which can perform a quintillion (i.e., a billion billion) calculations per second.

With this power, the team was able to study how matter rotates around these holes, although complex mathematics and improved algorithms were needed to ensure accuracy.

Simulations showed that the material forms highly turbulent disks dominated by radiation, emitting strong winds and sometimes energy jets. However, the accretion disk near the black hole remains relatively stable thanks to a magnetic shell that keeps the system stable.

These results, published in the Astrophysical Journal, represent the first time that the physical processes in stellar black hole accretion have been calculated with high precision. Previous simulations simplified radiation and treated matter as a liquid, which did not accurately reflect its actual behavior.

Scientists hope to expand in the future to study whether this calculation method applies to all types of black holes, including massive holes located in the centers of major galaxies.

Source: Daily Mail