Illustration of a magnetar close to a supermassive black hole (not to scale). A magnetar is a dense, collapsed star consisting of neutrons, that has a magnetic field billions of times stronger than the Sun. The ultra strong magnetic field accelerates particles, which emit jets of x-rays and gamma-rays (shown in blue). The mass of a black hole attracts matter into a surrounding accretion disc. Within the disc, matter is accelerated to high energies producing high energy particles which glow at detectable wavelengths. The mass of the black hole distorts spacetime which impacts the shape of the accretion disc.