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The physics surrounding black holes is just plain weird. A gravitational well so strong that not even light can escape can do some pretty strange things to normal matter. Over the decades, plenty of theories have been put forward about what those strange things might be. And now, a new paper from physicists at the University of Oxford has proved that, once again, Einstein\u2019s theory of gravity was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Their work focused on a \u201cplunging region\u201d immediately outside the black hole\u2019s radius. In this region, matter \u201cplunges\u201d straight into the black hole rather than orbiting it via the more familiar laws of orbital mechanics. One of the paper\u2019s authors, Dr. Andrew Mummery, equates it to watching a river turn into a waterfall. Matter flows nicely along a well-defined path and then seemingly drops off a cliff.<\/p>\n Theoretical work has been ongoing for this region for decades. The idea of the plunge came originally from Einstein\u2019s theory of gravity. It noted that sufficiently close to a black hole, the matter would be forced into the black hole at close to the speed of light. However, no one had yet collected any data and proved this theory.<\/p>\n \n