Albert Einstein spent nearly a decade developing his theory of general relativity, which he published in 1916. The theory asserts that gravity is matter warping space-time and so gravitational bends in space can alter the passage of time. While an appealing theory, it is yet unproven.
According to CNN, the first image of a black hole, captured in 2019, has revealed more support for Einstein's theory. The new finding has suggested his theory is now 500 times harder to disprove.
The black hole in this study is 6.5 billion times more massive than our sun. The research team measured the distortion in the black hole’s gravitational pull and found that the size of this black hole's shadow aligns with the theory of relativity, or matter warping space-time to create gravity.
While the theory of relativity has passed all of the tests thrown at it over the past century, further study is needed to confirm whether it continues to match up with astrophysical objects.