Supercomputers Reveal the Secret: How Black Holes Create Bright Colors.

According to ТСН: Astronomers have managed to model the process by which black holes naturally create bright colorful images that can be observed from billions of light-years away. This became possible thanks to the use of two of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.

Researchers from the Simons Foundation in New York replicated accretion processes (matter absorption) around so-called 'stellar' black holes, which had previously been difficult to observe.

A Dazzling Show Around 'Cosmic Monsters'

At the center of the images, black holes appear as a dark space, as even light cannot overcome their gravity. However, bright patterns of purple, pink, and orange form around these objects. This is an accretion disk — hot material (gas, dust, plasma) swirls and falls into the black hole, emitting energy.

'The color reflects the density of the gas. The brighter the color, the denser the gas around the black hole,' explained study author Lichun Zhang.

This bright glow allows astronomers to detect black holes in distant galaxies.

A Unique Simulation on Exaflops Machines

Unlike 'supermassive' black holes, which are hundreds of millions of times more massive than the Sun, smaller 'stellar' black holes could previously only be observed as point sources of light. To accurately model how matter behaves around them, the team used two of the most powerful supercomputers: Frontier (Oak Ridge) and Aurora (Argonne).

These computers, known as 'exaflops', can perform quintillion (a billion billion) operations per second. The matter around a stellar black hole forms 'very turbulent' disks dominated by radiation, causing chaotic winds and even powerful jets. Despite this chaos, the accretion disk remains 'extremely stable' due to a magnetically dominated shell.

The results, published in The Astrophysical Journal, accurately calculated the physical processes of accretion for stellar black holes for the first time. Previous simulations were simplified and did not reflect the actual behavior of radiation. Researchers plan to use this new method to study all types of black holes, including the supermassive Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy.

It is worth noting that falling into a massive black hole is fatal; however, most people are not at risk. Scientists warn that primordial black holes the size of an atom may be lurking in the Solar System, capable of killing a person. Physicist Robert Scherrer explained how this microscopic phenomenon could tear brain cells apart and lead to death from shock waves.

By the way, according to classical physics, falling into a black hole means inevitable death: gravitational forces will stretch you like spaghetti until you are destroyed in a singularity where space and time break down.

This new simulation opens new horizons in the study of black holes. It will help astronomers to better understand how these mysterious objects interact with their surrounding environment. As black holes remain one of the greatest questions in modern astrophysics, this experience will serve as a foundation for further research in this exciting field.