accretion

Eventually the entire accretion disk is torn in half, with the black hole first consuming the inner disc and then the outer one.

They can consume gas from their host galaxies in a process called accretion, and they can also merge with each other when two galaxies collide.

The team was motivated to take a closer look at flow patterns near the surface as conditions there resembled the unstable plasma flows in entirely different systems: the accretion disks around black holes.

The MIT-led team has shown that the wobble of the newly created accretion disk is key to working out the central black hole's inherent spin.

And they emphasize overlooked histories with sheer, undeniable accretion, or what the artist has called an “aesthetic of accumulation: accumulation of experience, reference, memory, and transfiguration.”