It seems Einstein was right.
More than 100 years on, researchers have confirmed his theory of relativity after seeing light ‘echo’ around a black hole.
The new study, published on July 28 in the journal 'Nature’, used the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR telescopes to see light from behind a black hole for the first time ever.
According to a statement from the ESA, the black hole is 800 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy. It is also 10 million times more massive than our sun.
Albert Einstein first predicted the light ‘echo’ in his general theory of relativity in 1916. Since light can't escape a black hole, its extreme gravity bends space around it, allowing light to ‘echo’ from behind the object as depicted in the following infographic.
The team not only spotted an X-ray flare, but they also observed the light changing colour as it bent. The researchers intend to create a 3D map of the black hole's surroundings to aid in better understanding what really takes place around these gravitational vortexes
