Astronomers have detected light behind a blackhole for the first time.
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A black hole is formed from the death of a star with such a high gravitational field that the matter gets squeezed in. |
The research published in the journal Nature reported the observations of x-ray flares emitted from around the supermassive black hole and its acceleration disk. It is already known that the black hole's extreme gravitational field redirects and distorts light coming from different parts of the disk.
Detecting light behind a black hole.
The light was detected by coincidence when researchers were studying the feature know as the corona. It is a form of x-ray light that is formed by materials falling into a supermassive black hole that can be analysed to map and characterise them.
However, the telescope picked up unexpected "luminous echoes" , smaller flashes, which were of a different colour than bright flashes. Analysis of photons consistent with re-emergence of emission from behind the blach hole. "The energy shifts of these photons identify their origins from different parts of the disk. These are Photons that reverberate off the far side of the disk, and are bent around the black hole and magnified by the strong gravitational field".
The detection of the bright flare confirms Albert Einstein's theory of relativity as photons bent around the black hole. It has been long known that any light that goes the black hole does not come out and cannot be seen again, however,
Astrophysicist believe that they were able to see the light because black holes warp space and bend the light as it twists the magnetic field around it.
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