Black Hole's Disc of Stars Confounds Hubble Crew
A mysterious blue light at the heart of a galaxy has been revealed as emanating from hot young stars orbiting a colossal black hole, astronomers using the Hubble space telescope have found.
Around the black hole in Andromeda, or M31, (right) is a rapidly moving pancake shaped disc of 400 stars.
Tod Lauer, of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, in Tucson, Arizona, said the appearance of the stars, which should be torn apart by the black hole's tidal forces, was "like watching a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat - you know it happened but you don't know how it happened".
Around the black hole in Andromeda, or M31, (right) is a rapidly moving pancake shaped disc of 400 stars.
Tod Lauer, of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, in Tucson, Arizona, said the appearance of the stars, which should be torn apart by the black hole's tidal forces, was "like watching a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat - you know it happened but you don't know how it happened".
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