Black Hole Week: Traveler and Friends GIFs

A black hole is a superdense object in space. Its surface, called an event horizon, is a boundary beyond which everything, including light, cannot escape. At its heart is a point where gravity and density are infinite – the singularity.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The singularity is the spot at (quite literally) the center of all the action in a black hole! Unfortunately, this post card will never escape the black hole.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Black holes are typically found in two different sizes, smaller stellar-mass ones and huge supermassive ones.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

While we know about small and big black holes, it’s also possible that black holes may have formed back at the beginning of the universe when everything was just really packed together. However, if they do exist, we haven’t detected them yet.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Black holes are often detected by how they affect their surroundings, which can include finding material orbiting an invisible object.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

If you have a keen eye, you might be able to catch a glimpse of a black hole by looking at its surroundings.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Black holes can bend light that’s passing them, which is called gravitational lensing.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Black holes are safe, from a distance.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The region near a black hole might have glowing stuff in a disk around it and some radiation, so getting too close is inadvisable.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Black holes often love to dance with other objects in the universe. In this GIF, our black hole has a high-mass star as a partner.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

We also find black holes and low-mass stars orbiting each other.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Black holes can also partner with white dwarfs, which is what low-mass stars become at the ends of their lives.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Neutron stars can also orbit black holes. These ultra-dense objects have powerful magnetic fields.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

If a star and black hole get too close together, the black hole will pull material from its companion.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

While black holes themselves are indeed black, they can also be bright sources of light, putting on a great show if anything gets a bit too close. Often, this stuff can turn into an accretion disk, which is basically just a bunch of gas, dust, and other stuff … circling the black hole in, well, a disk.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Stuff like gas, dust, snacks, potatoes, missing left socks, or even stars could orbit a black hole.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies can gather up more than gas and dust. They can collect stars and even smaller black holes, too.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Anything that wanders too close to a black hole can be torn apart and pulled in. This is called a tidal disruption event.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Black holes can launch powerful jets of matter moving at near the speed of light. A little bit of the surrounding stuff falls toward the black hole but gets thrown out.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Jets from black holes can create quite a light show.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies can launch giant, powerful jets into space, which can be viewed across the universe.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronomers study black holes with a combination of ground- and space-based telescopes and other detectors.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The Traveler is always sure to carry their helpful brochure with tips, tricks, and facts they’ll need to safely visit a black hole.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The Traveler’s black hole field guide is the perfect way to learn more about these elusive objects.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center