That not a very good picture I've seen better

http://hazel8500.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/gravity-and-black-holes.jpg

Looks like you might put the Bad Astronomer on your links list.

And there is amazing stuff here.

That's Mars - in more detail than Google Earth.

BTW - and this is not terribly off-topic:

With a little over 19 weeks to go before Dragoncon, all the dealer and exhibitor space is sold out, as are all the rooms in the four principal hotels. The exhibitors do include nearly fifty people from NASA and the research sciences; show management is doing a great job salting the fantasy goings-on with reality shows. JREF and assorted skeptics organizations are also making a few presentations. The guest list is still building; at 261 now, it usually tops out over 350. Among them is The Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, a great speaker and a great guy in person.

It would be pretty cool if Revengerella could move a few advance copies in the first week of September. I know they don't have to Photoshop the cover model!

Infalling material forms a flat disk, not a rounded cone like in the artist's rendition.

However, if the artist curved the disk on purpose to give us a visual impression of a gravity well, the attempt may be justified. After all, a still picture can't represent an increase in velocity toward the center. As I used to tell my students, *any* model works by some sort of distortion or another.

And it is beautiful.

Pull my finger...