Submitted by IPv6Guy t3_125z8l8 in askscience
Aseyhe t1_je7fact wrote
Light can be deflected by a large angle if it passes close enough to a black hole. In principle, light from a star on one side of the sky could indeed be deflected toward us by a black hole on the other side of the sky. See for example this simulated picture and notice how the galactic center on the right-hand side of the picture also appears to the left of the black hole, within the Einstein ring.
However, there is no concern that this effect could lead to seeing stars in the wrong places. As you can see in the picture, the black hole makes a distorted image of the whole sky. If we were able to resolve an individual star in that image, we would certainly also resolve the whole distorted image of the sky and infer that a black hole is there.
Thoughtfulprof t1_jeat74g wrote
That simulated image is quite cool, but can you imagine what a night sky like that would have done to world religions?
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