NASA's NuSTAR telescope has observed the relation of light and black holes like never before.
In a press release Tuesday, NASA revealed that the NuSTAR has been observing black holes and light emissions via X-ray for the last two years. The NuSTAR observed the effect of a supermassive black hole's gravity on nearby light emissions, and the results are stunning.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR's main investigator, said in a statement that the telescope observed the corona "lighting up material around the black hole" and will help NASA study "the most extreme, light-bending effects" of Einstein's theory of relativity. The NuSTAR's findings could help NASA better understand black holes as well as coronas.
Below is an artist's rendering of a corona near a black hole. --Meghan DeMaria
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
