Optical distortion around a black hole, simulation. Seen nearly edgewise, the turbulent disk of gas spiraling around a black hole (the accretion disk) takes on a warped appearance. The black hole's extreme gravitational field redirects and distorts light coming from different parts of the disk, but exactly what is seen depends on the viewing angle. The greatest distortion occurs when viewing the system nearly edgewise. Phenomena described here include Doppler beaming, a photon ring, and a black hole shadow. For a version of this illustration without labels, see image C047/4673.