Astronomers have for the first time observed bright X-ray reflections from a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy 800 meters light-years away.

Researchers studied a feature known as the corona, but telescopes also picked up an unexpected "light echo". These additional rays were smaller, later, and of different colors than the bright reflections.

The discovery confirms Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity

Gravitational pull from black holes essentially refracts light rays around them, giving scientists a glimpse of what lies behind them.

"Fifty years ago, when astrophysicists began to speculate on how a magnetic field would behave near a black hole, they had no idea that one day we would have techniques to observe this directly and see Einstein's general theory of relativity in action." said Roger Blandford, co-author of the study, published in the journal Nature.

 

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"Every light that enters that black hole does not come out, so we should not be able to see anything behind the black hole."said Dan Wilkins, an astrophysicist at the University Stanford.

"The reason we can see it is because that black hole distorts space, refracts light and twists magnetic fields around it," Wilkins said.

Source: The Guardian