A friend of yours who is a science fiction fan hears you talk about the fact that astronomers now believe that the mechanism for the large energy output of quasars involves a supermassive black hole. He challenges you, saying something like "Oh come on, every science fiction fan knows that nothing, not even light, can escape from a black hole! How can a black hole be an energy source?" How would you respond to his objection? a. you're right, my explanation doesn't make sense; I wonder why astronomers didn't think of that?
b. light can't escape from the event horizon of a regular black hole; but it can easily escape from the event horizon of a super-massive black hole.
c. it isn't light that escapes from the black holes in quasars, but x­-rays and gamma-­rays, which work by completely different rules.
d. the energy we see from quasars comes from regions where matter is falling in still outside the event horizon.
e. quasars act like gravitational lenses and bend spacetime until light and other radiation CAN emerge from a black hole in un-expected ways.