Einstein's theory of general relativity is proven!

Scientists see light coming from behind a black hole.

STANFORD, Kalifornia (PNN) - July 28, 2021 - A team of astronomers at Stanford University has detected light coming from behind a black hole in a first ever observation that proves famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

The study, published Wednesday in Nature, analyzed X-ray “echoes” surrounding a black hole, some 100 million light-years from Earth, which were a result of the intense gravity of the object warping space and bending the light back around into view.

These “echoes” are flashes of X-ray light that come from the disk, which scientists use to map the black hole's inner structure.

The scenario was predicted by Einstein's famous theory, penned in 1915, which determined that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, which is felt as gravity.

Roger Blandford, a co-author of the research, said, “Fifty years ago, when astrophysicists started speculating about how the magnetic field might behave close to a black hole, they had no idea that one day we might have the techniques to observe this directly and see Einstein's general theory of relativity in action.”

While conducting the research, Stanford University astrophysicist Dan Wilkins observed a series of bright flares of X-rays and then the telescopes recorded something unexpected: additional flashes of X-rays that were smaller, later, and of different “colors” than the bright flares.

“Any light that goes into that black hole doesn't come out, so we shouldn't be able to see anything that's behind the black hole,” Wilkins, who is a research scientist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, shared in a statement.

“The reason we can see that is because that black hole is warping space, bending light and twisting magnetic fields around itself,” said Wilkins.

While studying a black hole in the center of a galaxy called I Zwicky 1 (I Zw 1 for short), around 100 million light-years from Earth, Wilkins noticed a series of smaller flashes.

He and his team determined that the flashes are the same X-ray flares released from the center, but instead were being reflected from the back of the disk.

“I've been building theoretical predictions of how these echoes appear to us for a few years,” said Wilkins. “I'd already seen them in the theory I've been developing, so once I saw them in the telescope observations, I could figure out the connection.”

Wilkins and his colleagues' original research had focused on learning more about a black hole’s corona, which is a collection of ultra-hot gas particles that forms as gas from the disk falls into the black hole.

The leading theory about what a corona is suggests it begins with gas sliding onto the black hole, which is then heated to millions of degrees.

At such extreme temperatures, electrons separate from atoms, creating magnetized plasma.

”Caught up in the powerful spin of the black hole, the magnetic field arcs so high above the black hole, and twirls about it so much, that it eventually breaks altogether - a situation so reminiscent of what happens around our own Sun that it borrowed the name ‘corona’”, said Wilkins.

“This magnetic field getting tied up and then snapping close to the black hole heats everything around it and produces these high energy electrons that then go on to produce the X-rays,” said Wilkins.