Hamilton and Polhemus have painted a red grid on the horizon to help visualise it (as the horizon is spherical, the two circles on the grid represent the north and south “poles” of its central black hole). Even after you cross this radius, there is still a point in front of you where all light is swallowed, so from your point of view, you never reach the horizon. To distant observers, the horizon has a size of one Schwartzschild radius – about 15 million kilometres for this hole – but as you approach, it recedes from you. Light from stars directly behind the hole is swallowed by the horizon, while light from other stars is merely bent by the black hole’s gravity, forming a warped image around the hole. They follow the fate of an imaginary observer on an orbit that swoops down into a giant black hole weighing 5 million times the mass of the sun, about the same size as the hole in the centre of our galaxy.Īs you approach, a dark circle is bitten out of the galaxy containing the black hole, marking the event horizon – the point beyond which nothing can escape the black hole’s grip.
Falling into a black hole simulation code#
The research could help physicists understand the apparently paradoxical fate of matter and energy in a black hole.Īndrew Hamilton and Gavin Polhemus of the University of Colorado, Boulder, built a computer code based on the equations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which describes gravity as a distortion of space and time.
A new simulation shows what you might see on your way towards the black hole’s crushing central singularity. Video: Falling into a black hole would be a one-off sightseeing trip, so this simulation, calculated by Andrew Hamilton and his team at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is a safer optionįalling into a black hole might not be good for your health, but at least the view would be fine.