Black Hole (WION NEWS)
JAKARTA, kilat.com- When analyzing X-rays from the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy 800 million light-years away, researchers from Stanford University discovered an unexpected pattern. This light seems to be ejected from black hole to the surrounding space.
The spectacular flare of X-ray radiation that supermassive black holes produce when gas enters them can be used to explain this phenomenon. Short X-ray flashes are then observed after the flare stops. The reflection of the flare from the outer edge of the disc matches this flash.
Dan Wilkins, the observer, saw some exhilarating but often dazzling X-ray bursts. The sudden appearance of another X-ray flash startles the telescope because it is smaller, and has a different “color” from flame the strong one.
This spectacular echo is, according to the hypothesis, consistent with X-rays reflected from the black hole’s shadow.
Wilkins asserted that since no light penetrates a black hole, it should be impossible for us to detect anything behind a black hole. Wilkins is a research scientist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
But it was this other unusual characteristic of black holes that made this discovery possible. “We can observe it because the black hole rotates space, bending the light and magnetic field around it,” continued Wilkins.
This was the first direct detection of light coming directly from a black hole, a situation suggested by Einstein’s general theory of relativity but never demonstrated before.
The initial goal of the study was to understand the corona, a puzzling characteristic of some black holes. (nda)
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