This is what happens when sharpening is applied repeatedly to the image of the black hole at the centre of M87 galaxy created by scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope. The first 3 images are sharpened 10×, 20×, and 100×.
These two images show the same detail at 10× and 100× sharpening, showing how the edges grow and layers accrete:
These shapes grow from tiny, faint shapes in the background (stars?), very much like 2D cellular automata do:
One of the brighter spots:
What was the dark centre of the black hole. It seems that over time the patterns stabilise after growing, while the colours continue to shift a bit longer.
