A New Discovery
On October 22, 2001, NASA issued the findings of a report by Joern Wilms of Tuebingen University in Germany which documented for the first time energy actually being extracted from a black hole. Christopher Reynolds of the University of Maryland, a co-author of the report, explained the significance of their findings, saying "we always see engery going in, not out." As the black hole spins and pumps out energy in magnetic field lines, the temperature of the surrounding gas increases greatly. The intense force of gravity in this region pulls the magnetic field lines in, constricting around the black hole and producing friction so great that the spinning is actually slowed.
This process is illustrated by the computer-generated animation found here.
Using the European Space Agency's X-Ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) satellite, Tuebingen and his research team observed the spectral emissions of the galaxy MCG-6-30-15. Analysis of iron gas emissions very near the event horizon of the black hole show broad spikes where the black hole's gravity literally stretches the photons of light. The spectral lines are in fact so broad that the amount of light energy produced there cannot be explained by gravity and free-falling matter alone--the energy must be emanating from another source.
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