Are you curious to know what happens when you fall into a black hole? A fascinating new visualization, created by NASA on one of its supercomputers, now offers the opportunity to explore this mysterious phenomenon. Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, developed these images that allow a virtual foray into the event horizon — the point of no return for a black hole.
“People are often curious about what happens inside a black hole, and our simulations bring the mathematics of general relativity closer to the realities of the universe,” explains Schnittman. He simulated two scenarios: one in which a camera, representing a virtual astronaut, avoids the event horizon and returns, and another in which it crosses it, sealing its fate.
These visualizations, available as explanatory videos and interactive 360-degree versions, illuminate the unusual effects of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Thus, NASA fulfills its role of making known to the general public the complexity of cosmic phenomena.
INCREDIBLE video of NASA, What a Journey in a Black Hole in the Universe Looks Like
To make these visualizations, Schnittman collaborated with Brian Powell, another Goddard scientist, using NASA’s Discover Climate Simulation supercomputer. The project generated about 10 terabytes of data, equivalent to half the estimated textual content of the Library of Congress, and required about five days of processing on just 0.3 percent of the Discover supercomputer’s 129,000 processors.
The subject of the visualizations is a supermassive black hole, about 4.3 million times more massive than our Sun, similar to the cosmic monster at the center of the Milky Way. “If you have to choose, it’s preferable to fall into a supermassive black hole,” suggests Schnittman. He explains that stellar black holes of up to 30 solar masses have smaller event horizons and more intense tidal forces, which can destroy objects before they reach the horizon.
The process of spaghettification, in which objects are stretched extremely far under the influence of strong gravity, is a characteristic of this phenomenon. The simulated black hole’s event horizon spans about 16 million miles, and a turbulent, luminous accretion disk surrounds it, providing a stunning visual reference during the fall. Photon rings and a star background complemented by a starry sky add extra drama to the view.
These revelations by NASA not only answer a universal curiosity, but also emphasize the technological advance and the dedication of scientists in demystifying the universe. Through these simulations, NASA continues to inspire and educate the general public about the wonders of the cosmos.
This post was last modified on May 8, 2024, 2:37 PM 2:37 PM
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