X-rays were detected behind black holes for the first time ever; here's how

While analysing X-rays from the supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy 800 million light-years away, researchers from Stanford University found an unexpected pattern. These rays seem to be ejected from the black hole into the space around it.

The spectacular flares of X-ray radiation that supermassive black holes produce as gas enters them can be used to explain this phenomenon. Short X-ray flashes were then observed after the flares stopped. The flare reflections from the disc's outermost edge matched these flashes.

Dan Wilkins, the observer, saw several exhilarating but frequent dazzling X-ray bursts. The sudden appearance of other X-ray flashes surprised the telescopes because they were later, smaller, and had different "colours" than the powerful flares.

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These spectacular echoes, in accordance with the hypothesis, are consistent with X-rays reflecting from the black hole's shadow.

Wilkins asserted that since no light penetrates a black hole, it should be impossible for us to detect anything behind the black hole. Wilkins is a research scientist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

But another unusual characteristic of the black hole is what made this discovery possible. "We can observe it because that black hole is twisting space, bending light and magnetic fields around itself," Wilkins continued.

It is the first direct detection of light coming directly from a black hole, a situation that Einstein's general theory of relativity suggested but which had never before been demonstrated.

This research's initial goal was to understand the corona, a puzzling characteristic of some black holes.

(With inputs from agencies)

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