More than 100 years after it was first proposed, astrophysicists have proved a detail of Albert Einstein's theory on general relativity right.
Light reflected from behind a black hole has been seen for the first time.
It has been commonly thought that because black holes suck in light, it was impossible for light to be reflected from it.
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That is despite Einstein positing that light could be reflected from behind a black hole in his theory of general relativity.
The light was spotted in the form of X-rays emitted from a supermassive black hole 800 million light years away by Stanford University's Dan Wilkins.
"Any light that goes into that black hole doesn't come out, so we shouldn't be able to see anything that's behind the black hole," he said.
"The reason we can see that is because that black hole is warping space, bending light and twisting magnetic fields around itself."
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Einstein first published his theory of general relativity in 1915.
The theory proved pivotal to our modern understanding of gravity as well as astrophysics in general.
