Posted on 06/27/2002 3:00:57 PM PDT by blam
Scientists spot light struggling against black hole
Scientists have found evidence of light fighting to escape the pull of a black hole.
They say it is something predicted by Einstein which has never been observed until now.
Telescopes found weakened light coming from a region around the black hole which could only have had its energy sapped by gravity.
The observations were made using the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the XMM-Newton satellite.
The points of light will help astronomers map the curved space-time around a black hole.
Scientists used a spectrograph to analyse the light from a galaxy named NGC 3516. They found out the make-up of the light and the forces acting on it.
A spectrograph is a graph of light energy. The graph spikes at points where gravity affects the energy of the light by pushing or pulling it.
The spikes appear on a broad-lined graph which is what the theory of general relativity predicts will happen when light is pulled by gravity.
The paper describing the research was written by Dr T Jane Turner, of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre and the University of Maryland. It is published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Story filed: 10:44 Thursday 27th June 2002
This person obviously does not understand dopler shift caused by gravity. High gravity does not cause spikes to appear. The spikes are caused by certain light frequencies that are absorbed by some material that the light is passing through. High gravity causes the spikes to shift toward the red end (lower frequency) of the spectrum.
Gravity shifts spikes, it does not create them.
Photons do not "lose energy to gravity". The redshift is a Doppler shift caused by the difference in inertial frames due to the difference in gravitational acceleration between here and where the light was emitted.
Just so. Good catch.
I reckon E really does equal MC squared.
And the "thousand points of light" help conservatives map the warped morality around the Clinton presidency.
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