Illustration by James Gitlin, Space Telescope Science Institute. Click here for details and a high-resolution copy of the image . All that's left is a deep gravity well strong enough to keep light from escaping. What happens at the center is anyone's guess, literally, because the laws of physics, as we understand them, do not work under such extreme conditions. What we can see and measure are the effects of the black hole on space and matter around the hole.
Materials swirl inward, like water circling the drain.
In an arm of the spiral galaxy tagged ESO 184-G82, scientists found a brilliant star that was not in previous images. This was dubbed SN1998bw. But its light curve in radio waves was striking, indicating that the shock wave from the blast was moving very close to the speed of light. Indeed, it's the brightest supernova ever seen in radio waves. If GRB980425 and SN1998bw are associated, the scientists wrote, then GRB980425 is a rare type of burster, and SN1998bw is a rare type of supernova.