Black-hole accretion disc

Watch orbiting plasma lose angular momentum, heat up and spiral inward around a black hole.

Stellar black hole · 10 M☉Steady accretion

● Hot inner disc● Cooler outer disc— ISCO✦ Corona

Schwarzschild radius29.5 km

ISCO88.6 km

Peak temperature1.2×10⁷ K

Efficiency5.7%

Eddington ratio0.20

Temperature by radius

Accretion activity

Angular momentum

Effective viscosity transports angular momentum outward, allowing matter to drift inward. This represents turbulent and magnetic stresses, not solid friction.

A hot inner disc

Gravitational energy is released as matter moves inward, making the inner disc hotter. Much of the true emission may be ultraviolet or X-ray.

Corona and jets

Hot plasma forms a corona. Magnetic processes near the disc can power jets, but jets do not emerge from inside the event horizon.

Model note: This is a thin-disc particle approximation. Lensing, Kerr effects, beaming, corona and jets are educational renderings rather than full GRMHD and relativistic ray tracing.