Any light that goes to the black hole does not come out so we could see nothing that’s behind a black hole. But Dan Wilkins noticed an intriguing pattern that a series of bright flares of x rays were reflected from behind a black hole. It was a scenario that Einstein’s theory of general relativity had predicted and it is finally confirmed now.
“Fifty years ago astrophysicists had thought one-day magnetic field might behave close to a black hole. They had no idea that one day we might build techniques to observe this directly and prove Einstein’s general theory of relativity in action” said Roger Blandford, coauthor Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Stanford and SLAC professor of physics and particle physics.
How to Observe Black Hole
The first motive of this research was to find more about the mysterious features of certain black holes called the corona. When a black hole superheats to millions of degrees electrons separate from atoms which create magnetized plasma. They are caught in powerful spins the magnetic field arcs are high above the black hole and which twirls that eventually break altogether. This phenomenon happens around the sun as well.
“The magnetic field gets tied up and then snaps close to a black hole which heats producing high energy electrons that produce X- rays,” said Wilkins. Looking closer to investigate the origins of flares he saw smaller flashes. These X-ray flares are reflected from the back of the disk.
Future Observations
The mission to learn about this phenomenon continues and will require more observations. Part of that future will be the European Space Agency’s X-ray observatory, Athena (Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics).Wilkins is helping to develop part of Wide Field Imager detector for Athena which will give higher resolution looks on shorter observation. The view will be clearer.
