Black holes are one of the most misunderstood objects in the Universe. Much of the confusion stems from their name. When you hear the words "black hole," you might picture a tunnel in spacetime that leads to... certain death or something else. In reality, black holes are the collapsed remnants of stars that have become so dense that the gravitational force on their surfaces reaches the speed of light. As a result, nothing (including light) can escape their outer boundary, known as the "event horizon."

At MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , Professor Erin Kara leads a group at the forefront of black hole physics. Using data from space- and ground-based telescopes, they study the properties of black holes, how they grow, and how they affect their environments.…