Black Hole
A concentration of mass that bends spacetime
Summary
A black hole is a region where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. The disc of hot gas swirling around it is called an "accretion disc"; in this model the central sphere represents the event horizon and the outer ring the accretion disc.
In depth
Black holes form when very massive stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own gravity. Nothing that crosses the boundary called the "event horizon", not even light, can come back. In 2019 the Event Horizon Telescope team published the first direct image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy M87, confirming the ring-shaped structure around its "shadow". Black holes are described by just three basic properties (the no-hair theorem): mass, angular momentum (spin) and electric charge. As matter in the accretion disc spirals inward, it is heated by friction to millions of degrees and emits X-rays; that is how black holes are detected.
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