Skip Navigation
menu close modal
Resources

Other Black Hole Friends

This image shows baby black hole and supermassive black hole cartoon characters in different poses. The baby black hole is a black circle wearing a white, scalloped bonnet. In the first pose, the baby black hole is crying with its eyes shut tightly and its mouth wide open. In the second pose, the baby black hole looks ahead with a pacifier in its mouth. On the right is the supermassive black hole character. It is a black circle with muscly arms and a dumbbell in one hand.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Published: April 12, 2023

An unlikely pair, the baby (stellar-mass) and supermassive black holes enjoy just doing what they do best. For the supermassive black hole, it's being, erm, super massive. The baby loves crying.

ENLARGE

Explore the Universe

Related

An illustration of NASA’s CGRO spacecraft.
More
A graphic of CGRO is shown in light and dark shades of blue. The body of the spacecraft is rectangular, topped with two circular objects. Solar panels extend to either side, and a long pole with a small satellite dish at the end extends from the front end of the spacecraft.
CGRO (Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory)
An illustration showing a blue, side view of a barred spiral galaxy.
More
An illustration has an elongated oval in light blue stretching across the center, outlined in a darker blue. Behind the strip is a diffuse, very light blue cloud that fades into a light blue and then a darker blue. All over the image are white speckles, representing stars.
Barred Spiral Galaxy (Side View, Blue)
An illustration of ESA’s INTEGRAL spacecraft.
More
This INTEGRAL illustration shows the space telescope in shades of blue. The main body of the spacecraft is made of an octagonal base. A long rectangle extends from the base above a cylinder. Solar panels extend from either side of the base.
INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory)
An illustration of the International Space Station.
More
This illustration shows the International Space Station in shades of blue. The space station has a thin middle body made up of different small modules. Extending out from the middle body of the station, each side is flanked by a "wing" made up of a series of long, rectangular solar array pieces.
International Space Station
An illustration of NASA's NICER X-ray observatory.
More
This illustration shows NASA's NICER observatory in shades of blue. A smaller, flat and square lower half connects to a top half that is cube-shaped with a series of small, circular pieces across its face.
NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer)
An illustration of a pulsar with asymmetric magnetic field lines.
More
This object resembles an open clamshell with a pearl in the center and with one half significantly larger than the other. The two halves of the shape have different sizes of curved stripes that start as a dark blue on the outside and move inward towards the center, getting brighter and lighter. In the center is a bright white circle with transparent yellow beams emerging from its sides.
Pulsar (Version Two)
An illustration of NASA’s BurstCube spacecraft.
More
A graphic of BurstCube is shown in light and dark shades of blue. The satellite’s body is rectangular, with the long side facing the viewer. Solar panels are attached to the short, left-hand side.
BurstCube
An illustration of NASA's TESS spacecraft.
More
This illustration of NASA's TESS shows the spacecraft in shades of blue. The multi-sided, cylindrical shaped main body of the satellite has two solar array "wings," each extending out from the sides of the satellite which is attached to an open, cone shaped bottom piece. Nestled inside the cone are four squares which show the relative positions of TESS’s cameras.
TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)
An illustration of a planetary nebula.
More
In the background is a hazy pink and purple circle, with dark, transparent dark purple around the edge and lighter/brighter pinks leading inward. In front of the big circle is a purple object, shaped like a minimal, twisty lemon. Inside of this shape is a central, light yellow, cloudy circle with a bright white spot in the middle. All within the lemon-shaped object, the white spot is surrounded by a pink oblong oval shape which is overlapped by two large, pink circular shapes and two small, pink circular shapes. White dots representing stars speckle the image.
Planetary Nebula (Version One, Pink)
An illustration showing the side of an irregular galaxy.
More
A very long, diffuse, vaguely oval-shaped blob has a hazy dark purple color around its edge and it gets progressively lighter moving inward toward a cloudy white center. White dots representing stars speckle the image.
Irregular Galaxy (Side View)
An angled oval illustration of a supernova.
More
A large oval shape on an angled tilt with rounded waves around the edge, this graphic has a flower-like appearance. Smaller transparent circles with the same wavy edge are layered inward to create an inner starburst shape. The outer rings are a very yellow green color and they move inward into different light orange colors and finally to a center oval shape that is a dark blue and appears like a starburst because of the waved outlines that lay on top. White dots representing stars speckle the image.
Supernova (Yellow)
An illustration of NASA's SPHEREx spacecraft.
More
This illustration of NASA's SPHEREx mission shows the spacecraft in shades of blue. The main body of the spacecraft is cone shaped with smaller cone shapes within it, with a solar array "wing" stemming from the side of the craft.
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer)
An illustration of the EXCLAIM instrument.
More
An illustration in multiple shades of blue depicting EXCLAIM. The instrument is made up of a hollow cylindrical object next to a rectangular object. The whole instrument sits within a framework that extends upwards to a point, where it will attach to a balloon.
EXCLAIM (Experiment for Cryogenic Large-Aperture Intensity Mapping)
A textbook illustration of a pulsar.
More
This object resembles a tilted open clamshell with a pearl in the center. The two halves of the shape have curved stripes that start as a bold, dark blue on the outside and move inward towards the center, getting brighter and lighter. In the center is a bright white circle with transparent yellow beams emerging from its sides.
Pulsar (Version One)
A horizontal oval illustration of a supernova.
More
A large horizontal oval shape with stripes of lighter and darker green moves inward to a lighter green oval with waved edges. In the center is a dark green oval that appears like a starburst because of the waved outlines that lay on top. White dots representing stars speckle the image.
Supernova (Light Green)
An illustration of a long gamma-ray burst caused by a collapsing star.
More
At the center of a series of nested blue circles is a black dot representing a black hole. A pair of cone-shaped, white jets emerge from either side of the black hole, tilted 45 degrees from vertical. The outermost blue circle has layered scalloped edges.
Long Gamma-Ray Burst From a Collapsing Star
An illustration of a planetary nebula.
More
A subtly transparent, colorful hourglass shape has a central point that is a white circle surrounded by bright, white haze. Extending outward from the center in opposite directions are plums of color that form the hourglass shape. The central part of each plume starts as an icy, light blue and fades upward into a purple color and outward into red. White dots representing stars speckle the image.
Planetary Nebula (Version Two, Purple)
An illustration of NASA's NuSTAR space telescope.
More
This illustration shows NASA's NuSTAR space telescope in shades of blue. Attached to the base of the instrument is a long, tower-like structure that extends out towards the front of the spacecraft that has a singular, wing-shaped solar array attached.
NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array)
An illustration of a blue star-forming nebula.
More
A large, amorphous blob in a circular shape has layers of transparent, hazy color overlapping. The different layers are a range of transparent blues, some greener shades than others. While white dots representing stars speckle the whole image, in the upper left part of this shape is a bright white circular cloud with more pronounced and larger stars grouped together.
Star-forming Nebula (Version Two, Blue)
An illustration of NASAs Spitzer.
More
This illustration shows NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in shades of blue. The main body of the observatory is cylindrical with an open top and a large piece containing the observatory's solar array on a panel on the telescope's back.
Spitzer Space Telescope
An illustration of NASA’s WMAP spacecraft.
More
This illustration shows NASA’s WMAP spacecraft in shades of blues. The bottom of the satellite is a round circle, like a ballerina’s tutu. Rising from the circle is a bulky, vaguely cylindrical shape topped by two circles facing opposite directions.
WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe)
An illustration of a blazar, or an active galactic nucleus that emits a powerful radiation jet. 
More
A graphic shows a diffused, dark purple ring that fades inward to a bright purple, a lighter purple, and eventually to a light blue gradient. At the center of the circular object is a small black circle from which a transparent beam is emitted, starting as a transparent blue and moving into green, yellow, orange and red.
Blazar
An illustration of the ASCA spacecraft, developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Japan.
More
A graphic of ASCA is shown in light and dark shades of blue. The body of the spacecraft is bottle shaped, and an array of solar panels crosses on top of the widest part.
ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics)
An illustration showing an irregular galaxy.
More
An amorphous, bean-shaped diffuse purple blob that's darker around the rim with a light, whitish center. White dots representing stars speckle the image.
Irregular Galaxy (Version Three)
An illustration showing a purple, front view of a barred spiral galaxy.
More
A background of medium, bright purple shows a bright, white, thin line that creates an oblong, elongated swirl that connects in the middle with a yellowish, diffuse cloud. White dots representing stars speckle the image.
Barred Spiral Galaxy (Front View, Purple)

Explore the Universe

Universe News

Two neutron stars begin to merge in this illustration, blasting a jet of high-speed particles and producing a cloud of debris.
More
Neutron Stars Collide
Neutron Stars Collide
A group of galaxies is plunging into the Coma galaxy cluster and leaving behind an enormous tail of superheated gas.
More
Galaxies Go on a Deep Dive and Leave Fiery Tail Behind
Galaxies Go on a Deep Dive and Leave Fiery Tail Behind
JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, which will devote about 32 days of telescope time to uncover and characterize faint, distant galaxies.
More
Early Universe Crackled With Bursts of Star Formation, Webb Shows
Early Universe Crackled With Bursts of Star Formation, Webb Shows
This moody image shows a galaxy named Messier 85, captured in all its delicate, hazy glory by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
More
Hubble Gazes at a Hazy Galaxy
Hubble Gazes at a Hazy Galaxy
A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the James Webb Space Telescope.
More
NASA's Webb Space Telescope Peers Behind Bars
NASA's Webb Space Telescope Peers Behind Bars
Today sensors on orbiting satellites like NASA’s Swift and Fermi missions detect a GRB somewhere in the sky about once a day on average.
More
NASA Looks Back at 50 Years of Gamma-Ray Burst Science
NASA Looks Back at 50 Years of Gamma-Ray Burst Science
Scientists identified water vapor in the atmosphere of WASP-18 b, and made a temperature map of the planet.
More
Webb Maps and Finds Traces of Water in an Ultra-hot Gas Giant's Atmosphere
Webb Maps and Finds Traces of Water in an Ultra-hot Gas Giant's Atmosphere
A team of astrophysicists and citizen scientists have identified what may be some of the last planets Kepler space telescope observed.
More
Astronomers Discover Planets in NASA Kepler's Final Days of Observations
Astronomers Discover Planets in NASA Kepler's Final Days of Observations
The jellyfish galaxy JW39 hangs serenely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
More
Hubble Captures a Drifting Galaxy
Hubble Captures a Drifting Galaxy
Four images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope of two galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster.
More
NASA's Chandra, Webb Combine for Arresting Views
NASA's Chandra, Webb Combine for Arresting Views
Astronomers have come up with some of their best evidence yet for the presence of an "intermediate-sized" black hole.
More
NASA's Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole Close to Home
NASA's Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole Close to Home
Scores of baby stars shrouded by dust are revealed in this infrared image of the star-forming region NGC 2174, as seen by Spitzer Space Telescope.
More
Baby Stars in the Orion Constellation
Baby Stars in the Orion Constellation