Once a month
get new photos
and expert tips.

Science and Space
Main Health and Human Body Earth Space Prehistoric World A-Z

Photo Gallery: Black Holes

PREVIOUS3 of 6NEXT


This x-ray image taken in 1999 with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows what astronomers believe is a supernova remnant interacting with the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Scientists studying the object, called Sagittarius A East, theorized that the shock wave created when it went supernova (bright yellow and orange tones) compressed and plowed gas into the gluttonous black hole (large white dot within shock wave) creating a period of intense feeding followed by a period of "starvation." Astronomers think similar relationships between supernovae and black holes may exist throughout the universe. Photograph courtesy NASA/Penn State/G. Garmire et al.