Phys.org April 8,2020
An international team of researchers (USA – Caltech, MIT, industry, Columbia University, UC Berkeley) observed light coming from very close to the black hole that is trying to escape, but instead is pulled right back by the black hole like a boomerang. This is something that was predicted in the 1970s but hadn’t been shown until now. By looking closely at the X-ray light coming from the disk, as the light spirals toward the black hole, the team found imprints indicating that the light had been bent back toward the disk and reflected off. The new results offer another indirect confirmation of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and will help in future measurements of the spin rates of black holes…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
This illustration shows how some of the light coming from a disk around a black hole is bent back onto the disk itself due to the gravity of the monstrous black hole… Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)/R. Connors (Caltech)