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

Here’s a video [of stars orbiting the black hole at the center of the milky way](https://youtu.be/ChJU3pWRcrA). We can see them all fine because even though the black hole is massive, it’s still tiny compared to the distances of even its closest stars.

So the center of the milky way is bright because there is a dense cluster of stars there and the black hole is far too small to block their light.