Stars that are born with a mass greater than 20 times that of the Sun eventually wind up collapsing into black holes. Nasa has been investigating these strange objects in great detail in order to truly comprehend their nature and role in galaxies’ evolution.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released images of 22 such structures in our Milky Way galaxy and its closest neighbour, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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The graphical engineers had to speed up the circular movement of these dark objects by approximately 22,000 times to perceive them, as per Nasa, and the viewing angles match way we perceive them from Earth.

The colours of the stars vary from blue-white to reddish, indicating temperatures that are five times warmer than our Sun to 45% colder. A black hole is formed when a star dies with such a powerful gravitational field which matter is squashed into the small region beneath it, capturing the light of the dead star.

Gravity is incredibly powerful even though matter is stuffed into such a tiny space. Since no light can escape from a black hole, no one can see it.

The MAXI J1659, for instance, has the fastest known orbit of an accreting black hole, which means it is steadily growing larger. It is approximately 29,000 light-years away from Earth and contains a black hole with a mass 5 times that of the sun.

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On Instagram, NASA shared another stunning image depicting a supermassive black hole distorting the fabric of space-time.

Cover Image: NASA