We all know that black holes gobble up anything and everything that passes through their event horizons. However, the exact moment something moves past that point of no return and is sucked into a black hole is not well understood as it has never before been observed. That is until now.
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00:00 We all know that black holes gobble up anything and everything that passes over their event
00:08 horizons.
00:09 However, the exact moment something is sucked into a black hole is not well understood as
00:13 it has never been observed before.
00:15 Until now.
00:16 Einstein theorized decades ago that there would be a particular point in time and space
00:19 that an object would stop orbiting a black hole and fall into it.
00:22 Now physicists say they have found proof of this plunging region in X-ray data.
00:27 When objects fall into black holes, they don't go straight in, but rather they first orbit
00:30 it like water down a drain.
00:32 However, there has to be a point when that object gets so close, it can no longer move
00:36 around the black hole and must fall in.
00:38 While observing MAXI 1820+070, a black hole around 8.5 times the size of the sun, which
00:44 resides around 10,000 light years away, physicists believe they have observed exactly that moment.
00:50 The black hole is currently siphoning material away from its companion star, and researchers
00:54 noticed there were extra outbursts of light they couldn't account for.
00:57 They now say this light is evidence of what they call a plunging region, or a particular
01:01 area of the black hole where matter and light effectively disappear forever.
01:05 With the researchers adding, "This final plunge of plasma happens at the very edge
01:09 of a black hole and shows matter responding to gravity in its strongest form possible."
01:14 - Maxi 1820+070
01:15 - Maxi 1820+070
01:15 (upbeat music)
01:18 (upbeat music)