images

Supermassive black hole. Artwork.

by

Nasa/ESA/Novapix

Reference

a-blh01-00005

Date

2006-11-09

This artist's impression shows the thick dust torus that astronomers believe surrounds many supermassive black holes and their accretion discs. When the torus is seen edge-on as in this case, much of the light emitted by the accretion disc is blocked, creating a "hidden" black hole.