Black Holes: Visible Light Detected Coming From Black Holes For First Time

Black holes themselves are commonly surrounded by an accretion disk, in which gas from a companion star is slowly drawn to the hole in a spiral pattern. In the case of V404 Cygni, the gravitational pull exerted on its partner star was so strong that it stripped matter from the surface. Being heated by outbursts of X-ray radiation, the disk emits high quantities of optical rays, which are visible without the need of specialized equipment. Phys.org states that x-rays heat the outer ring of a black hole’s accretion disk which brings forth the possibility to see the light via telescope. The new finding is important because scientists usually observe black holes by studying x-rays or gamma-rays, but now they are able to observe them by studying light fluctuations from the surrounding accretion disks. As Space.com explains, this absence of light is where black holes got their name.

Researchers have succeeded in observing with the naked eye blinking “outbursts” of light from a star orbiting around a black hole, Kyoto University said Thursday.

Black holes are a bit mad, when you think about it. Nothing can escape them, not light, not sound, not Harry Houdini. The team was able to develop a technique that observes the Black holes’ outbursts as a basis for its monitoring.

Until now astronomers have typically watched the activities of black holes through X-rays, which are generated within the black holes.

With the help of V404 Cygni, astronomers are now one step closer to solving some of the greatest mysteries behind black holes, including why they sometimes go decades without feeding and how they start up again.

Under the right conditions, a black hole will emit low-level light and radiation that is visible from earth if it is close enough.

The research focused on V404 Cygni, one of the black holes binaries thought to be nearest to Earth, which also became active as it underwent an outburst on June 15, 2015.

Co-author Daisaku Nogami remarked that the fact that stars can be seen only after dark for a few hours and taking an observation from many locations across the globe enabled obtaining comprehensive data that much easier.

V404 Cygni’s proximity to us (7,800 light years) makes it one of the cosmos’ best-studied black holes, and what’s got the Japanese researchers excited is that it sometimes produces phenomena that can be observed with a simple optical telescope of 20 cm or bigger. The coming together of worldwide observation network has made the documentation of this rare event possible.