Does Light Bend Around A Black Hole? Exploring The Phenomenon

Can light curve around a black hole? According to Connors (published on April 8, 2020), the phenomenon of light bending around black holes is not solely attributed to their gravitational pull but also their rapid spin. This spin not only causes light to bend but also imparts a twisting motion to it. In essence, the extreme gravitational forces generated by fast-spinning black holes result in a complex interplay of gravitational lensing and light twisting, making the topic of light behavior near black holes even more intriguing.

Does light slow down when it approaches a black hole? Contrary to intuition, light doesn’t decelerate as it moves closer to a black hole. In fact, it behaves quite differently. When a vertical light beam travels upward from the surface of a planet and approaches a black hole, it actually accelerates rather than slowing down. This intriguing phenomenon challenges our conventional understanding of light’s behavior in extreme gravitational fields. This insight sheds light on how black holes interact with light and was observed on November 6, 2014.

When light approaches a black hole, it encounters an extreme gravitational field that dramatically affects its path. The immense curvature of spacetime near a black hole causes any trajectory light may follow to ultimately bend and lead it inexorably toward the black hole’s interior. Consequently, once a beam of light crosses the event horizon of a black hole, it becomes trapped and can never escape. This phenomenon is why black holes appear completely devoid of any emitted light; they are, in essence, cosmic “light traps.” This principle was elucidated on March 29, 2016.