General Relativity effects and line emission

General Relativity effects (gravitational redshift, light bending, …) strongly modify the characteristics of the lines emitted close to the Black Hole in Active Galactic Nuclei and Galactic Black Hole systems. These effects are reviewed and illustrated, with particular emphasis on line emission from the accretion disc. Methods, based on the iron line, to measure the two astrophysically relevant parameters of a Black Hole, the mass and spin, are briefly discussed. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)