Studies of strong gravitational fields near super-massive black hole horizons with space missions Original Research Article

General relativity (GR) can be probed by several tests in the weak gravitational field limit. On the contrary, very poor information exists about GR tests in strong gravitational fields. Here, we focus on the interaction of light rays with the strong gravitational field of a massive black hole and show that relativistic images may form. Hence, we calculate the shapes of shadows (mirages) forming just near BH horizons and discuss the possibility to estimate the black hole parameters (mass, spin and charge) by future astrometric missions. In 2007, the Radioastron space telescope will be launched and it will allow to evaluate those parameters for the black hole hosted at the center of our Galaxy.