Caption This illustration shows the ingredients of a long gamma-ray burst, the most common type. The core of a massive star (left) has collapsed, forming a black hole that sends a jet of particles ...

"The gamma-ray burst traveled through intergalactic space at the speed of light for eleven billion years, during which time the Sun and the planets were born." — Timothy Ferris, in the film ...

Yet, though our image of a black hole is one of an all-consuming ... These jets are accompanied by bursts of electromagnetic radiation like the gamma-ray flare that the EHT witnessed.