Black holes were originally believed to be empty spaces. But it was Einstein who theorized that it should be possible to see light waves ejected out of a black hole's backside. That theory has finally been proven correct.
Rendering of the X-ray flares detected from the far side of a black hole.
Previous studies have proven that light waves bend around a black hole. But just recently, astrophysicist from Stanford University, Dan Wilkins and his colleagues, discovered X-rays that were released by a supermassive black hole located 800 million light-years from Earth in the center of the galaxy. The recent observations were made using two space-based X-ray telescopes: NASA's NuSTAR and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton.
This is a huge observation, as Dan Wilkins said, '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 and his teams' observation show that it is in fact possible, as their findings show that the black hole is warping space, bending light and twisting magnetic fields around itself.
Einstein's idea that gravity is matter warping space-time, has persisted for over a hundred years as new astronomical discoveries have been made. Now that his theory has officially been confirmed through Wilkin's recent observation, a whole new world has been opened for space exploration.
