A Son of the Rock

I know the description is kind of metaphorical and reflects a Gosh-Wow! attitude to the phenomenon and that light can’t escape from below the event horizon.

But they aren’t!

Black, that is.

Not always, anyway.

Certainly not if they are attracting material from nearby stars. Then they must be the biggest firework displays in the universe.

For example:-

The artist’s impression comes from
http://www.gwu.edu/~sps/Society%20of%20Physics%20Students%20%28SPS%29/Events/A136FC42-F9B5-46A5-A0CB-F0007B262E14_files/Black-hole.jpg.

Here’s another nice one showing material from a nearby star bleeding into the accretion disc.

That is from https://lasers.llnl.gov/programs/images/nasa_black_hole.jpg.

Not at all bad for something that’s described as black.