Telescopes do not see a black hole itself: it emits or reflects no light. Astronomers instead detect radiation from hot material around an actively feeding black hole, then use infrared, X-ray and other observations to work out what dust and gas are hiding. Each wavelength reveals a different part of the picture, and the strongest conclusions come from combining them.
What telescopes actually observe
A black hole is not a glowing object that a telescope can photograph. As NASA explains, black holes do not emit or reflect light, so astronomers study their effects and the matter around them instead.
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When a supermassive black hole is actively feeding, gas spiraling inward becomes hot and can emit across the electromagnetic spectrum. Dust and gas between that region and us may absorb or obscure some of the signal. The result is not necessarily an invisible object in every wavelength: a source may be faint in visible light but detectable in infrared or X-rays.
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This approach is most effective for black holes with bright surroundings. A quiet black hole, without much hot material emitting radiation, is harder to locate by these methods.
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How infrared telescopes study dusty regions
Dust absorbs ultraviolet and visible light and re-emits that energy as infrared radiation. Longer infrared wavelengths also pass through dusty regions more readily than visible light. Infrared observations can therefore reveal heated dust and emission emerging from within or around obscured regions.
That does not mean infrared makes dust transparent or shows the event horizon. It gives astronomers a different signal to study: the energy dust has absorbed and re-radiated, along with other infrared emission from the source and its surroundings. Webb observes near- and mid-infrared wavelengths; historical observations from Spitzer also helped reveal active galactic nuclei that lacked obvious visible-light counterparts.
Why X-rays can reveal a buried black hole
Hot material close to an actively feeding black hole produces X-rays. Surrounding gas and dust absorb lower-energy X-rays more readily, while higher-energy X-rays can pass through more of the obscuring material. That makes X-ray observations useful for detecting and characterizing some heavily obscured sources.
Chandra can detect and localize X-ray sources, while NuSTAR observes higher-energy X-rays that help researchers study strongly obscured objects. Faint signals can require long exposures, so infrared surveys may help identify promising targets for follow-up X-ray observations. A detection is not always a complete answer: astronomers may need more data to estimate how much material blocks the source or to confirm which object produced the signal.
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Why astronomers combine wavelengths
No single image necessarily establishes that a hidden source is a black hole. Astronomers compare a source’s position, brightness and spectrum across observations, using each wavelength to address a different question.
- Infrared: Can reveal heated dust and emission that is difficult to see in visible light.
- X-rays: Can identify energetic activity near an accreting black hole, including some signals that emerge through obscuring material.
- Optical: Shows the host galaxy and can identify unobscured quasars, but a buried nucleus may be suppressed.
- Radio and submillimeter: Can show surrounding structures or nearby companion galaxies, helping to establish context.
NASA has described Chandra X-ray observations paired with optical survey data to find previously unidentified black-hole candidates. In other cases, ALMA observations showed a faint companion near a quasar. Such comparisons matter because a nearby galaxy or source can complicate the identification.
A historical example comes from the GOODS field: NASA reported Chandra X-ray sources with no obvious visible-light counterpart, followed by Spitzer infrared observations that revealed active galactic nuclei. A source that appears absent in one band can become evident in another.
Case study: the obscured quasar candidate PSO167-13
In a 2019 report, NASA described Chandra detecting just three relatively high-energy X-ray photons from PSO167-13 during 16 hours of observation. One likely explanation was heavy obscuration: lower-energy X-rays had been absorbed, leaving only the higher-energy photons detectable.
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The object was described at the time as a candidate cloaked quasar from an era about 850 million years after the Big Bang. The report said longer Chandra observations were needed both to estimate the degree of obscuration and to confidently associate the X-ray source with the quasar rather than a nearby companion. The example shows why a faint signal can support a promising interpretation without settling every part of it.
How common are hidden feeding black holes?
NASA/JPL’s 2025 summary of a study combining ten years of NuSTAR data with measurements from other missions, including IRAS, reported that at least 35 percent of feeding supermassive black holes are hidden. This is the estimate reported by that study, not a census of every black hole.
The classification has caveats: infrared-selected samples can include star-forming galaxies whose emission resembles that of obscured black holes, and the NASA/JPL summary notes that some candidates were not heavily obscured black holes. The figure should therefore be read as a qualified study estimate, not a universal fraction.
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The examples rely on space observatories and major research facilities—including Chandra, NuSTAR, Webb, Spitzer, IRAS and ALMA—with instruments designed to detect X-rays, infrared or radio/submillimeter signals and specialized processing to interpret them. A consumer visible-light telescope cannot reproduce this kind of observation or image a black hole hidden by cosmic dust.
What makes an observation convincing?
When astronomers assess a candidate, they consider more than whether a point appears in an image. They look at the wavelength and how gas or dust affects it, whether the instrument is detecting the nucleus or its environment, how faint the signal is, and whether the source can be localized separately from a nearby companion. A detection in one band may establish a candidate; combining bands can help identify the source and test the interpretation.
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