Fact Sheet
Into the Darkness
A disk of superhot gas spins around a black hole in this artist's concept. The black hole's powerful gravity pulls the gas from the surface of a "normal" companion star, at right. As the gas spirals close to the black hole it gets hotter. The disk also produces powerful magnetic fields that can beam electrically charged particles into space at close to lightspeed. [NASA/CXC/M.Weiss]
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