An artist's impression of the inner parts of the accretion disk around the black hole V404 Cygni. (Image credit: ICRAR) Spinning black holes have wobbly dance partners Supermassive black holes ...

The gas and dust accumulate in a flat disk around the star, known as an accretion disk, as a result of strong gravitational forces.

However, the longer and brighter flares are more similar to tidal waves and are caused by more significant events. The minor disturbances within the accretion disk likely generate the faint flickers.

Astronomers have viewed the outer region of an active supermassive black hole's accretion disk, thereby improving our understanding of these feeding cosmic monsters.

To put that in perspective, the inner edge of its accretion disk is whipping around at about 14% the speed of light—that's around 42 million meters per second.

Spin transfer Artist’s impression of an accretion disc surrounding a black hole. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/oorka) Researchers in France have created a new experiment that could improve our understanding ...

The variability of the black hole’s activity is likely due to the random nature of the material flowing into the accretion disk, Yusef-Zadeh said.

Zombie star’s strange behavior ascribed to what it’s eating Neutron star winds, an accretion disk, and jets combine for complex interactions.

An artist’s illustration depicts the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*. It’s surrounded by a swirling accretion disk of hot gas and dust.

The gas in the black hole’s accretion disk had levels of nitrogen up to 100 times than the Sun’s and much lower levels of carbon (only about 40 percent of what the Sun contains).

As the matter gathers, a spinning disc called an accretion disc is forming. This is the first time that astronomers have seen an accretion disc in an extragalactic area.

To understand the mysteries surrounding black holes, researchers at Tohoku University have created a simulation of accretion disk turbulence that possesses the highest-resolution currently available.