We are fascinated by these bizarre objects that can trap anything that comes to close, even light. Since astronomers can't directly see a black hole, we can infer its presence by what is going on around it.
Recently, using the Hubble Space Telescope, the light from the accretion disk around a black hole has been measured for the first time.
My first reaction to the image above was, "Oh, pretty!" My second reaction, however, was, "Wait, that could be misleading."
The study talks about how astronomers have detected a disk around a black hole, and this image shows what looks to be two bright objects surrounded by disks. Those are NOT the black hole disk in question, but rather artifacts of the optics of the telescope itself, along with the spots and rays around them.
These artifacts fundamentally limit the resolution of your telescope, so you actually want to be able to see the "Airy disk" when you zoom in so you know that you've removed any other imaging artifacts. (Or so I've been told. I'll admit that it's been a while since I've used anything other than radio telescope.)
Read more at Discovery News
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