Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
If light can’t escape black holes, how do we know where they are? The regions around them tell an incredible story. From blazing coronas and swirling accretion disks to powerful jets that stretch millions of miles, these extreme environments reveal black holes' secrets and how these mysterious objects shape the universe.
Join host Sophia Roberts as she talks with researchers Jenna Cann and Cecilia Chirenti at NASA Goddard about how scientists study these mysterious structures, the challenges of observing the unseeable, and the discoveries that continue to change our understanding of black holes.
Music credits from Universal Production Music:
“Breaking the Barrier,” David Bertrand Holland
“Dust Spirals,” Alexandre Prodhomme
“Miniature Universe,” Geoffrey Wilkinson
“Urban Decay,” Sarah Natasha Penelope Warne
“Solar Plexus,” by Brandon Seliga
“Polygraph,” Eric Chevalier
“The Mischief Makers,” Joaquim Badia
“Maelstrom Dream,” Lucie Rose
“The Truth Will Out,” Chris Dony and Beth Perry
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Sophia Roberts (eMITS): Lead Producer
Krystopher Kim (eMITS): Lead Visualizer
Jeanette Kazmierczak (University of Maryland, College Park): Science Writer
Cecilia Chirenti (University of Maryland, College Park): Researcher
Jenna Cann (UMBC, University of Maryland): Researcher
Robert Andreoli (eMITS): Camera
John Philyaw (eMITS): Camera
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14905. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14922. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAGoddard
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Instagram: instagram.com/nasagoddard
· X: twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Facebook: facebook.com/NASAGoddard
· Flickr: flickr.com/photos/gsfc
If light can’t escape black holes, how do we know where they are? The regions around them tell an incredible story. From blazing coronas and swirling accretion disks to powerful jets that stretch millions of miles, these extreme environments reveal black holes' secrets and how these mysterious objects shape the universe.
Join host Sophia Roberts as she talks with researchers Jenna Cann and Cecilia Chirenti at NASA Goddard about how scientists study these mysterious structures, the challenges of observing the unseeable, and the discoveries that continue to change our understanding of black holes.
Music credits from Universal Production Music:
“Breaking the Barrier,” David Bertrand Holland
“Dust Spirals,” Alexandre Prodhomme
“Miniature Universe,” Geoffrey Wilkinson
“Urban Decay,” Sarah Natasha Penelope Warne
“Solar Plexus,” by Brandon Seliga
“Polygraph,” Eric Chevalier
“The Mischief Makers,” Joaquim Badia
“Maelstrom Dream,” Lucie Rose
“The Truth Will Out,” Chris Dony and Beth Perry
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Sophia Roberts (eMITS): Lead Producer
Krystopher Kim (eMITS): Lead Visualizer
Jeanette Kazmierczak (University of Maryland, College Park): Science Writer
Cecilia Chirenti (University of Maryland, College Park): Researcher
Jenna Cann (UMBC, University of Maryland): Researcher
Robert Andreoli (eMITS): Camera
John Philyaw (eMITS): Camera
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14905. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14922. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAGoddard
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Instagram: instagram.com/nasagoddard
· X: twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Facebook: facebook.com/NASAGoddard
· Flickr: flickr.com/photos/gsfc
