This animation shows a supermassive black hole surrounded by a disc of gas and dust - the remains of stars that have been torn apart by the extreme gravity of the region. Owing to the incredible strong gravity, the disc around the hole is warped - a concept known as gravitational lensing. The lensing allows the viewer to see not only the disc behind the black hole, but also the disc's underside as well, because light from those regions is bent towards the observer. Supermassive black holes exist at the centres of most, if not all, large galaxies, including our own Milky Way.