Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity passes yet another test
With giant telescopes pointed at the centre of our galaxy, a team of European researchers observed a fast-moving star that got close to a monstrous black hole. They saw that the black hole distorted the light waves from the star in a way that agrees with Einstein’s theory.
The result was reported today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Effects of general relativity have been seen before. But this is the first time they’ve been detected by observing the motion of a star near a supermassive black hole. Einstein proposed the theory more than a century ago. Scientists know it still doesn’t explain everything about the universe. So they keep testing it time and again.
Recently, scientists spotted the evidence of a rare intermediate-mass black hole – an elusive object whose existence has been hotly debated. Scientists have been able to prove the existence of small black holes and those that are super-massive, but the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) was never proven. Researchers from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in the US found the strongest evidence to date that such middle-of-the-road black holes exist, by serendipitously capturing one in action devouring an encountering star.
“We feel very lucky to …read more
