If light cannot escape a black hole, could light orbit a black hole, and in theory if you could stand in that spot and look in the direction of the orbital path, could you see your back?

Question

The march 1993 cover of Scientific American magazine inspired me for this question when I was a kid.

In: Physics

Answer 1

Yes, light can theoretically orbit a black hole at a specific radius known as the photon sphere, which is about 1.5 times the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole. If you could stand at this radius and look in the direction of the orbital path, you could indeed see your back due to the extreme bending of light caused by the black hole’s intense gravitational field.