The animation of NASA's black holes shows how gravity distorts our vision

A still image of a black hole, side view.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Jeremy Schnittman

• A new animation from NASA shows what you would see if you were hanging around a black hole.
• The high severity of the black hole would distort your view: aside, the outer ring, called the accretion disk, would seem to bend around a dark abyss. It would also be brighter on one side than on the other.
• But if you looked at the black hole from above, the ring would form an almost perfect circle and the light would appear more evenly.
• This creates a kind of funny mirror effect in which your point of view changes its view.
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Until recently, scientists could only speculate on the appearance of a black hole.

Since the gravitational attraction of a black hole is so strong that everything, including light, is devoured, it is extremely difficult to capture one in front of the camera. To see a black hole, we have to rely on the light of the stars and other sucked materials (before they disappear).

In April, a group of scientists from the international event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released the world's first photograph of a black hole. The picture confirmed our understanding of black holes as dark spheres surrounded by a ring of glowing light, but the photo looked more like a smear than a detailed snapshot.

A new video from NASA, however, shows what the black hole might look like if the researchers were able to film it in action – or if you just had to hang around nearby.

In animation, gravity turns light into a mesmerizing gyre that moves according to your point of view.

The visualization first shows what a black hole would look like on the side (as it appears in the still image above): you would see a dark sphere in the center. It's "shadow" of the hole – where the light is curved and captured. The limit of this shadow is called "event horizon" or "point of no return", because beyond that, the gravitational force of a black hole is powerful enough to suck all that is safe. approach to the abyss.

Just outside the event horizon is a late halo called "photon sphere", consisting of light rays circling the black hole.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Jeremy Schnittman

The most captivating part of the visualization, however, is the outer ring of hot material called "accretion disk". It is composed of stars, planets, asteroids, comets and other dead particles driven by the gravitational pull of the hole. (NASA scientists have just caught one of these dying stars.)

The path of light seems to bend around the sphere, forming a hump at the bottom and at the top. The disc is brighter on the left side because the glowing gas would move towards you at a speed close to that of light. The gas on the right side is moving away from you, so it's not as bright. (Think of how a beam of a lighthouse becomes incredibly bright when it is directed directly toward you.)

But things change in visualization when you look at the black hole from above. Suddenly, the bright light disperses evenly because, from this point of view, no part of the disc approaches or moves away from you. The disc also forms a neat circle instead of the "double hump" that you would see from the side angle. The sphere of photons remains the same, because the light is essentially trapped in perfect orbit.

Looked:

NASA compares this journey of stretched, twisted and curved light to a carnival mirror.

"Simulations and films like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity is distorting the fabric of space and time," said Jeremy Schnittman, l & # 39; NASA astrophysicist who created the visualization, in a statement.

The animation also gives context to the black hole photography published in April. In this picture, the accretion disk was significantly lighter at the bottom of the image and darker at the top. The visualization of NASA reminds us that such a view would change depending on our location.