If the center of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole, why is the center of the Milky Way the brightest part of every photograph of it?

Question

Wouldn’t it be, you know, a big black spot?

In: Other

Answer 1

Two reasons:

the first is that black holes swallow light, so light accumulates at the event horizon

The second is that time is distorted near the event horizon, so the time to reach and cross the event horizon appear infinite to us.

So what you’re really seeing is all the accumulated light of stars, planets, civilizations as they wait their turn to be snuffed out of existence at the end of eternity.