Super-hungry black hole with an eerie glow is eating everything. See photo

James Webb Space Telescope has captured a black hole ravenously eating up cosmic bodies. This black hole lies at the centre of the spiral galaxy NGC 4258 located 23 million light-years from Earth. It shreds up everything that comes near it and is gobbling them up. European Space Agency (ESA) shared a photo of the galaxy, explaining the wondrous things happening in it.

"At its heart, as in most spiral galaxies, is a supermassive black hole, but this one is particularly active," the ESA said in a statement. Notably, James Webb was a collaborative effort between ESA, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

Black holes are extremely dense and have immense gravitational power. Nothing escapes them, not even light. But this only happens when something comes too close to them. Black holes don't emit light, and the light around them, as seen in the photo shared by ESA, is of the blazing hot material surrounding them.

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This galaxy with a very active black hole, is one of the brightest and nearest spirals to ours. Its central region is lit up by its black hole gobbling up dust and gas, which heats up, creating powerful radiation. https://t.co/UwDj4WUh9i pic.twitter.com/ABSq7smr90 — NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 9, 2024

The photo shared by ESA shows cosmic dust and gas heating up and producing glowing light around the galaxy. Almost everything that moves in a black hole's orbit is shredded apart. It starts to spin rapidly around the black hole and becomes a super-hot "accretion disk." The material shoots light and energy into space, with some of it plummeting down into the black hole. It glows up the region near the black hole as it heats up while travelling at extreme speeds.

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The photo shows the vivid glow at the centre of the spiral galaxy NGC 4258. Several tiny spots of light can also be seen in the photo, which are nothing but distant stars. However, all the light being emitted will stop once the supermassive black hole passes the final boundary between space and the black hole.

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Two sprawling green outflows seen in the picture are made of hot gas, the ESA said. "They are likely caused by outflowing material produced by the violent churning of gas around the black hole, creating a phenomenon analogous to a wave crashing up out of the ocean when it hits a rock near the shore," the space agency explained.

Black hole in Milky Way

Our galaxy also has a huge black hole at its centre. However, it is not eating up cosmic bodies like our neighbour. It lies 0.1 light years away from the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) where the scientists had been observing a cluster of stars called IRS 13. Stars here have been moving in an unexpected manner. This prompted two theories - either the star cluster is interacting with a black hole or something is present inside the cluster.