Astrophysical journal, Journal

You may have heard that nothing escapes the gravitational grasp of a black hole, not even light. This is true in the immediate vicinity of a black hole, but a bit farther out -- in disks of material that swirl around some black holes -- light can escape. In fact, this is the reason actively growing black holes shine with brilliant X-rays.Now, a new study accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal offers evidence that, in fact, not all of the light streaming from a black hole's surrounding disk easily escapes. Some of it gives in to the monstrous pull of the black hole, turns back, and then ultimately bounces off the disk and escapes."We 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," said Riley Connors, lead author of the new study and a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech."This is something that was predicted in the 1970s, but hadn't been shown until now," Connors added. The new findings were made possible by combing through archival observations from NASA's now-defunct Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) mission, which came to an end in 2012. The researchers specifically looked at a black hole that is orbited by a sun-like star; together, the pair is called XTE J1550-564.The black hole "feeds" off this star, pulling material onto a flat structure around it called an accretion disk. 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 disk is essentially illuminating itself," said co-author Javier Garcia, a research assistant professor of physics at Caltech. Garcia further said: "Theorists had predicted what fraction of the light would bend back on the disk, and now, for the first time, we have confirmed those predictions. "The scientists say that the new results offer another indirect confirmation of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, and also will help in future measurements of the spin rates of black holes, something that is still poorly understood. "Since black holes can potentially spin very fast, they not only bend the light but twist it. These recent observations are another piece in the puzzle of trying to figure out how fast black holes spin," said Connors. The new study, titled, "Evidence for Returning Disk Radiation in the Black Hole X-ray Binary XTEJ1550-564," was funded by NASA, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Margarete von Wrangell Fellowship.( With inputs from ANI )

Home

City

Latest News

Cricket

LT Premium

National

International

Maharashtra

Opinions

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Nagpur

Entertainment

Photos

Business

Technology

Sports

Lifestyle

Social Viral

Lokmat Games

Health

Pahalgam Terror Attack

Tahawwur Rana

IPL 2025

CM Devendra Fadnavis

Mumbai Local

Weather Update

Astrophysical JournalFOLLOW

Astrophysical journal, Latest News

International :COVID-19: Thousands of garment workers lose jobs across Asia, stores in US, Europe shut

Hundreds of thousands of garment workers in Asia, a vast majority of them being women, were suspended or laid off when the coronavirus pandemic struck as stores closed across North America and Europe. ...

Technology :Study suggests possibility of dozens of intelligent civilisations in our galaxy

A new study has calculated that there could be more than 30 intelligent civilizations throughout the milky way galaxy. ...

International :36 intelligent civilisations may exist in our own galaxy: Study

There could be 36 active intelligent civilisations in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, but we are unable to ... ...

Technology :Astronomers unveil the magnetic field of the solar corona

While the world has been dealing with the corona virus pandemic, researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have been hard at work studying the solar corona, the outermost atmosphere of the Sun which expands into interplane ...

Technology :Galaxies grow fat on the flesh of their neighbours

A new research led by Indian origin researcher Dr Anshu Gupta, has revealed that galaxies grow large by eating their smaller neighbours. ...

Technology :Black hole bends light back on itself

You may have heard that nothing escapes the gravitational grasp of a black hole, not even light. This is true in the immediate vicinity of a black hole, but a bit farther out -- in disks of material that swirl around some black holes -- light can esc ...