Einstein's Relativity Confirmed Near A Space-Time Warping Supermassive Black Hole

The Very Large Telescope array uses a laser guide star and four connected, infrared telescopes to astronomers can pierce the turbulent core of our galaxy and study the supermassive black hole that lurks there. (Credit: G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO) Astronomers have long had their eye on a group of stars that precariously circles just outside the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. And, in a discovery announced by the European Southern Observatory on Thursday, scientists say they've finally spotted one of these stars as it travels through the black hole’s gravitational field. It's the first test of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity near a supermassive black hole. The event, recorded in incredible detail, reveals how the extreme gravitational pull of a black hole affects light. Einstein suspected that a black hole might be powerful enough to lower the frequency of light under extreme circumstances, and ...