Can matter escape from this black hole?
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Courtesy of NASA

Escape From a Black Hole!
News story originally written on July 24, 2000

There is a new theory about black holes. Scientists now think there is a way for matter to escape a black hole. It was believed that not even light can escape the event horizon, the black hole's border. But scientists think they may have found a way to get free.

"We often think of black holes pulling in matter, but actually what we observe with our current instrumentation is matter flying out," said Timothy Kallman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

So, how does this matter escape? Supersonic winds form near the equator of the black hole, called the accretian disk. These winds produce a shield that allows matter to escape from the outer regions of the accretian disk.

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