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)
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