So, I have an idea
People who know more about astrophysics chime in.
So, you've got a black hole — not one of the supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies, but big enough. Around the black hole is its accretion disk, which is glowing and bright.
Now, way, way out away from this black hole — light-years out, probably — there's a planet, a rocky planet about the size of Earth. The planet likely started off as a normal planet in a normal star system, and had a thick atmosphere and such. Somehow or other, this planet gets tossed out of its stellar system — probably by the system's gas giants wandering around the system. The atmosphere freezes once it gets far enough away from its birth star, and the frozen planet floats around for eons, a rogue planet. Just by chance, the planet falls into a massively huge orbit around our black hole — light-years away from the black hole, remember — and also by chance, the energy coming out of the accretion disk has a life zone, and the planet is in that. The atmosphere melts, oceans form, the atmosphere evolves, and eventually life evolves there. Eventually, sentient life evolves and hilarity ensues.
So, it'll be an Earth-like planet —but with a black hole as it's sun.
Fun setting?
So, you've got a black hole — not one of the supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies, but big enough. Around the black hole is its accretion disk, which is glowing and bright.
Now, way, way out away from this black hole — light-years out, probably — there's a planet, a rocky planet about the size of Earth. The planet likely started off as a normal planet in a normal star system, and had a thick atmosphere and such. Somehow or other, this planet gets tossed out of its stellar system — probably by the system's gas giants wandering around the system. The atmosphere freezes once it gets far enough away from its birth star, and the frozen planet floats around for eons, a rogue planet. Just by chance, the planet falls into a massively huge orbit around our black hole — light-years away from the black hole, remember — and also by chance, the energy coming out of the accretion disk has a life zone, and the planet is in that. The atmosphere melts, oceans form, the atmosphere evolves, and eventually life evolves there. Eventually, sentient life evolves and hilarity ensues.
So, it'll be an Earth-like planet —but with a black hole as it's sun.
Fun setting?