ESA - ESA's high-energy observatories spot doughnut-shaped cloud with a black-hole filling
![](https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2004/07/doughnut-shaped_cloud_surrounds_black_hole/10198982-2-eng-GB/Doughnut-shaped_cloud_surrounds_black_hole_pillars.jpg)
Using ESA’s Integral and XMM-Newton observatories, an international team of astronomers has found more evidence that massive black holes are surrounded by a doughnut-shaped gas cloud, called a torus. Depending on our line of sight, the torus can block the view of the black hole in the centre. The team looked `edge on’ into this doughnut to see features never before revealed in such a clarity.
![](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014300/a014375/Euclid-Roman_Graphic_Final.jpg)
NASA SVS
![](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1500w,f_auto,q_auto:best/MSNBC/Components/Slideshows/_production/ss-120531-MISP/ss-120531-MISP-01.jpg)
Month in Space: May 2012
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Comet_Hale-Bopp_1995O1.jpg/1200px-Comet_Hale-Bopp_1995O1.jpg)
Comet - Wikipedia
![](https://www.telescope.com/assets/images/articleimages/asteroid20170406-16.jpg)
Astronomy Orion Telescopes & Binoculars
![](https://aasnova.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/SMBH_Scale_Still_1-702x395.jpg)
black holes Archives - AAS Nova
James Webb Space Telescope & Cosmological Discoveries
![](https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2024/02/black_hole_winds_from_a_galactic_core/25463609-1-eng-GB/Black_hole_winds_from_a_galactic_core_pillars.jpg)
www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/
![](https://eoportal.org/ftp/satellite-missions/b/BlackHole-25022022/BlackHole_Auto2A.jpeg)
Black Hole Image 2019 - eoPortal
![](https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2004/07/doughnut-shaped_cloud_surrounds_black_hole/10198982-2-eng-GB/Doughnut-shaped_cloud_surrounds_black_hole_pillars.jpg)
ESA - ESA's high-energy observatories spot doughnut-shaped cloud with a black-hole filling
![](https://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/84/5d/845de090-7fa7-4ee7-ac94-b0962b8f9ade/galaxyv5b20160115-16.jpg)
A hundred satellites, all talking at once. Here's the intel., Air & Space Magazine
![](https://www.telescope.com/assets/images/articleimages/Magnetic_Universe.jpg)
Astronomy Orion Telescopes & Binoculars