APOD: Orbiting a Black Hole (2013 Jul 01)

[Chris Peterson]

So what is it that gets blown away as jets?

Infalling (orbiting) matter that has interacted with other orbiting matter, and with the jet producer's (which need not be a black hole) rotation, charge, magnetic field, or other physical properties.

The entire process of jet formation takes place outside the event horizon (just as it takes place around bodies that don't even have event horizons).

[Beyond]

So all the 'exciting' activity takes place out past the event horizon, and whatever isn't orbiting around the hole fast enough in the accretion disk, starts to spiral down into the black hole in rather a plain vanilla unexciting fashion, that maybe should be called a plain dark chocolate fashion, and adds to the mass of the black hole.