Re: Perhaps someone can explain something to dumb old me.
The other answers addressed your gravity questions.
As for your question about the angle of the black hole to us, the black hole in the picture was chosen because it was oriented that way. Given the number of black holes in the universe, every orientation exists. Many are too small to image the accretion disk (the one in question is a super massive black hole at the center of a galaxy). Others are obscured by dust (like the super massive black hole at our galaxy's center). And many are just too far away for current imaging technology.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
