Just like Einstein predicted.Back EntryScientists discovered a series bright X-ray light flares coming from behind a supermassive dark hole.According to Dan Wilkins, Stanford University's lead author of the paper in Nature Communications today, "Any light that goes into the black hole doesn't come out," so we shouldnt see anything behind it.The discovery was made possible by an unusual feature of black holes.Wilkins stated that we can see this because the black hole is warping and twisting magnetic fields, bend light, and bending space around itself.AdvertisementAdvertisementEinstein's theory of general relativity predicted it. However, the bending light around a dark hole has not been confirmed. This is a testament of recent technological advances that have allowed us to take a unique look at the cosmos.Affirming EinsteinIt was a thrilling moment in the history astronomy.Roger Blandford, professor of physics at Stanford and co-author of the statement, stated that fifty years ago astrophysicists began to speculate about the behavior of the magnetic field close to a blackhole. They didn't know that we would one day have the tools to observe this directly and see Einsteins general Theory of Relativity in action.Coronas are swirling halos made of superheated gases that surround black holes. These gases can be trapped in the magnetic field of a black hole and produce X-rays that we can see from Earth.AdvertisementAdvertisementAlthough we don't know enough about the coronas that swirl around black holes in our universe at large, the European Space Agency's Wide Field Imager detector will allow us to make better observations.READ MORE: The first detection of light coming from behind a dark hole [Stanford University]Continue reading: Astronomers Find the Closest Black Hole to Earth
