I so much dislike artists’ renditions and illustrations of astronomical phenomena. I want to see the real thing! Show me the infrared or ultraviolet or xray image! Those are just as cool too look at, and way more amazing because they are real!
(Nothing against the artists, by the way. I’m also amazed by the talents such artists possess. I just don’t like such imagery being passed off as what’s actually happening.)
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/studies-find-echoes-of-black-holes-eating-stars
Like these images, considered to be the first directly imaged exoplanets: Direct Imaging SO AWESOME! Give me more of these!
1) In July 2004 a group of astronomers led by Gael Chauvin took an image of a planetary-mass object in orbit around brown dwarf 2M1207
2) Hubble Space Telescope image of planet Fomalhaut b orbiting the star Fomalhaut
Though, apparently, we even have to be wary of images supposedly produced by telescopes, as they may be falsely color by astronomers. Here’s how they do it with some of the Hubble images: Color as a Tool