3 ms·

If nothing can escape black holes how is it they “spew” things?

• pdonis 9y ago
  The things aren't coming from inside the black hole. They're coming from a region near, but outside, the horizon.
• opcon 9y ago
  The jets shown in the article come from the accretion disk [1], a disk of matter orbiting the black hole, formed as matter 'spirals' in. For reasons we aren't 100% sure about yet (though we suspect it is due to angular momentum and energy transfer through some process [3]), matter (in the form of hot plasma) from this accretion disk can be launched out along the axis of rotation at relativistic speeds (close to the speed of light) in the form of astrophysical jets [2], which we can observe to due the radiation they emit. These jets play a large part in galaxy evolution, and as shown in the article can be huge, extending far beyond the galaxy itself. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disk 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet 3: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10509-009-9984-y https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10509-009-9984-y
• podiki 9y ago
  They also (are believed to, based on famous calculations by Hawking) radiate like a black body with a temperature related to their mass. And this leads to them losing mass over time, eventually evaporating. (Leaving what is a subject of much debate.)
  • saagarjha 9y ago
    I believe the "spew" that booleandilemma was referring to were the twin perpendicular "jets" that black holes often seem to eject, for which the explanation is probably some sort of angular momentum/near miss close to the event horizon sort of thing.