With the knowledge of what a black hole looks like in galaxy Messier 87, scientists can now construct a more accurate concept of how its gravitational force operates and to conduct a better model for light emission. Interestingly, the studies lead to the creation of a new visualization of how gravity warps light in a black hole. Formulas such as the homotopy-perturbation method (HPM) is used by Shchigolev and Bezbatko (2019) to measure the gravitational deflection of light near the black hole. On the other hand, according to research conducted by Akiyama, et al. (2019), ‘when surrounded by a transparent emission region, black holes are expected to reveal a dark shadow caused by gravitational light bending and photon capture at the event horizon’ (Akiyama, et al., 2019, p.1). In other words, the quantity of shadows produced is relevant to the estimation of the light emitted.
The bright spot around the black hole, or the accretion disk, is composed of the infalling dispersed elements (which is mostly gas) that orbit around the black hole. Along with its intensive gravitational force, the light particles ejected appear as a strangely bent shape. Furthermore, the left side of the disk occurs to be brighter than the right because of the asymmetry in the speed emission of the light waves. If looked more closely at the visualization, there is excess brightness in the bottom portion of the emission ring that frames the black hole, which can be explained by the ‘fast rotation and relativistic beaming’ (Akiyama, et al., 2019, p. 2).
As a result of recent research (Gott, et al., 2019), to estimate the emission of light, it is more simplistic to calculate the light curves of a black hole’s shadow than the actual shadows themselves because the technology nowadays has not yet reached the ability. With further analysis and investigations on the light curves, it should be easy to estimate the overall parameter of the system. Additionally, if there are more researches done on the shadows of supermassive black holes, tests of general relativity could be better suited, considering the fact that ‘the shadows of supermassive BHs are already a prime target for such studies’ (Gott, et al., 2019, p. 25). At the same time, Akiyama, et al. (2019, p.8) stated that ‘a shadow can be produced by any compact object with a spacetime characterized by unstable circular photon orbits,’ leading to another discovery that can be used in later researches. However, Gott, et al. (2019) predicted that even though it is feasible to observe the shadows more precisely in the future, it would still not occur for a certain decade.
