Why haven't we observed distortion of objects near a black hole's event horizon?

[Benzoate]

why haven't there been any observations of planets or stars or anything near a black hole's event horizon being distorted?

 

[mathman]

There are no black holes near enough to see individual stars. What has been observed is the high energy emissions resulting from things being speeded up (and ultimately falling in).

 

[Benzoate]

There are no black holes near enough to see individual stars. What has been observed is the high energy emissions resulting from things being speeded up (and ultimately falling in).

But aren't there supposedly to supermassive black holes at the center of our Milky way galaxy? Surely scientists should observed debris falling in since there are black holes at the center of our galaxies.

 

[mathman]

The center of our galaxy is pretty far away and the radiation from the stuff circling the black hole masks any individual things. Moreover there is a time dilation effect so that things falling in would appear to slow down and get dimmer (red shift), so that even if we were close enough to see, we would not see the actual infall.