Last month, two of NASA's space telescopes caught a supermassive black hole in the midst of sending out beams of X-ray light, as reported on their website. Now, Indian astrophysicist Abhas Mitra is claiming that this observation supports his theory that black holes are not "true" black holes, but actually extremely hot balls of fire much like our Sun, according to The Economic Times.
Standard astrophysicist theories postulate that black holes are the result of massive stars that collapse and turn into extremely compact objects that possess a gravitational field that nothing can escape from, even light. Naturally, last month's finding of light escaping from one came as a surprise that some are using to rethink our conception of black holes.
Even more interesting about the findings is the fact that the images point to a massive corona as the stimulus for the giant flare of X-rays, which also contradicts the notion that nothing can come out of a black hole.
"Instead of true black holes predicted by Einstein's theory, we proposed that massive stars end up as balls of fire - termed Magnetospheric Eternally Collapsing Objects or MECOs," said Mitra. "Gas streams pulled inward by gravity get extremely hot by friction and may radiate X-rays."
"Our best example of a magnetized ball of fire is our Sun which is surrounded by a tenuous aura of plasma called Corona," he said.
However, some believe that the findings do not completely destroy our current theories of black holes - physicist Joseph Polchinski believes that a black hole's event horizon, the point from which light can never escape past, may be made of visible, solid shells that give off high-energy particles, according to Scientific American.
Despite these claims, Mitra hopes that the recent NASA findings will prompt others to reconsider current theories on black holes and seriously consider his.
"This latest astrophysical observation by NASA should prompt astrophysicists to take a closer look at the MECO paradigm," he said.
