One of the first direct consequences of the Equivalence Principle is the 'gravitating' of light towards massive bodies. A strict interpretation of general relativity(GR) concerns paths in 4D space-time, but from a visualizable 3D view, an apparent attractive force between mass and light results.

Thus it appears that light trajectories are deflected and distorted by the enormous gravitational fields of massive bodies. The reality of this prediction was confirmed in 1919 by Eddington, who measured deflection around the Sun. Considering that the minimum mass for a black hole is 3 solar masses and the existence of supermassive black holes has been postulated, gravitational lensing of light near these dark objects can, in principle, be much larger. An interesting extension of the gravitational lensing of one object is the possible lensing of all 'optically' near objects into a halo. The image shows (with horrendous exaggeration) some of the possible photon trajectories from a few luminous bodies around a black hole. If perhaps you were observing a black hole closeby with a dense stellar background, then a sizable halo might be observed. The following movie shows calculations of curvature and lensing done on super computers illustrating this effect.

Supposing that your spaceship is outfitted with a dazzling array of probes and scientific gadgets, you begin writing your report early by considering what effects on these you expect to observe. Say, for instance, that aboard your ship is a gravimeter probe that can measure the local acceleration (Exactly what the probe does is irrelevant as long as it sends back information. The gravimeter is just an example). The behavior of the returned signal(light) in curved space-time is obviously important. Curvature has a more important effect on light, however, than the mere re-direction discussed above. Relativity predicts that light loses energy, i.e. redshifts , when its motion opposes the curvature. In 3D, this means that a gravitational field reduces the frequency of light passing out of it. The primary (only?) means of communication is through light signals from the probe, so the dilation of the light is of importance. Luckily, you remembered your relativistic corrections for redshift so the signals from the probes will be useful for a while.

Musing over the list of experiments to perform, you remember some of the sensational theoretical work of Stephen Hawking. The fact that there is no accepted full blown theory of quantum gravity in existence has not kept physicists from attempting to fuse the two in some manner. Utilizing quantum mechanics and relativity, Hawking was able to show that black holes should appear as though they are emitting thermal radiation that displays black-body behavior. The figure to the right displays black-body radiation characteristics. The temperature parameter of black-body radiation is the most interesting since it describes the overall shape of the intensity curve and specifies the peak of the thermal radiation.

Hawking's result (see this page for in-depth look at Hawking radiation) was that a black hole of mass M would emit the thermal radiation at the temperature: