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What Would It Look Like To Fall Into a Black Hole?

Posted by timothy on from the phrase-your-answer-in-wine-review-terms dept.

CNETNate writes "A new video simulation developed by Andrew Hamilton and Gavin Polhemus of the University of Colorado, Boulder, on New Scientist today, shows what you might see on your way towards a black hole's crushing central singularity. Hamilton and Polhemus built a computer code based on the equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity, and the video produced allows the viewer to 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. The research could help physicists understand the apparently paradoxical fate of matter and energy in a black hole."

154 comments

  1. I thought it was April 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How did a Goatse story get on the front page?

    1. Re:I thought it was April 2? by Pikoro · · Score: 1

      is it just me, or did that look like a screensaver?

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  2. Huh? by Jack9 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't assume you see red grid lines?

    --

    Often wrong but never in doubt.
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    Everyone knows me.
    1. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I assume they help mark the event horizon in 3D since black doesn't do a good job of this...

    2. Re:Huh? by AvitarX · · Score: 4, Funny

      Probably while your still pretty far away, you see a white light, and ancestors calling.

      --
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    3. Re:Huh? by FST777 · · Score: 3, Informative

      According to the TFA, the red grid marks the event horizon as the "falling" observer would see it. Later on, you see a white grid, which marks the event horizon as distant observers see it.

      --
      Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
    4. Re:Huh? by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Funny

      I would have assumed you would see a completely black grid on a completely black background.

    5. Re:Huh? by Jack9 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't expect you'd see anything, since even light would be pulled into the center. No grid at all, nothing on which to gauge the distortions.

      --

      Often wrong but never in doubt.
      I am Jack9.
      Everyone knows me.
    6. Re:Huh? by lastchance_000 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You'll probably be eaten by a grue.

    7. Re:Huh? by GarryFre · · Score: 0, Redundant

      I doubt they would see anything the dead don't see. It would suck.

      --
      www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!
    8. Re:Huh? by nanospook · · Score: 2, Funny

      The very last thing you would see is a Walmart floating by..

      --
      Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
    9. Re:Huh? by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Funny how this is supposed to tell you what you see. You would see black space.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    10. Re:Huh? by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      You'd only gt that black-on-black view if you were falling into a black hole in a ship specially decorated for Hotblack Desiato. Come to think of it, that would be highly appropriate under the circumstances.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    11. Re:Huh? by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      And a Starbucks on the corner.

      Ooooh, an unintentional pun!

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    12. Re:Huh? by GWBasic · · Score: 1

      I don't expect you'd see anything, since even light would be pulled into the center. No grid at all, nothing on which to gauge the distortions.

      Well, wouldn't you see the light coming in, assuming that the gravity hadn't torn your body to bits?

      What I find interesting is the weird pattern of light that appeared towards the end.

      --
      No, I will not work for your startup
    13. Re:Huh? by Creepy · · Score: 1

      Maybe you'd interpret it as black space, but technically you would not see anything there since its gravity is too strong to let any light out and your eyes rely on reflected light off an object to see it. You would see light bent around the hole, and as you approached the hole this light would get more and more distorted, especially at the event horizon (at least according to the general relativity theory the sim was based on).

      So basically, if you're staring directly at the hole, you'd see nothing (it would appear black, because no light is reflected). If you're staring around the edges or elsewhere, you'd see a distorted light warp effect.

    14. Re:Huh? by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Black is the absence of light hitting our retina. So, yes, you would be seeing black space.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    15. Re:Huh? by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Of course you see nothing facing in toward the black hole, but what if you turned around? :)

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
  3. hmm, I see by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

    So falling into a black hole looks and awful lot like a slashdotting. Good to know!

    --
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    1. Re:hmm, I see by mikiN · · Score: 2, Funny

      The Slashdot Paradox:

      Getting first post on Slashdot while falling into a black hole.
      Cynical phycisists might call that an extremely slow news day.
      Other physicists might remark that now there are 2 things which can escape from a black hole: Hawking radiation and Slashdot posts.

      --
      The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
    2. Re:hmm, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. /.ing requires you to do something. Falling in black hole is like religions in general. You just need to die... (not sure wanna be rebord as cow tho)

    3. Re:hmm, I see by lordofthechia · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's an alternate simulation here.

      --
      Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
    4. Re:hmm, I see by Weaselmancer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Another simulation here.

      --
      Weaselmancer
      rediculous.
    5. Re:hmm, I see by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure I would ever want to be 'rebord' at all!

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    6. Re:hmm, I see by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Thanks for reminding me how undescribably bad that movie was.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
  4. What does it look like? by tnk1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It looks like you are seriously fucked.

    1. Re:What does it look like? by schmidt349 · · Score: 3, Funny

      What actually transpires beneath the veil of an event horizon? Decent people shouldn't think too much about that.

      Academician Prokhor Zakharov
      "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"

    2. Re:What does it look like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SMAC for the win, of course. I was just playing that. :P

    3. Re:What does it look like? by fractoid · · Score: 1

      It sounded (from TFA) like the event horizon is actually subjective; that you'd never "hit" it from the point of view of an observer falling into the black hole.

      Of course, what the Academician probably meant was "the pixels go a funny shape and then the world goes blue with big grey letters on it".

      --
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    4. Re:What does it look like? by digitalunity · · Score: 1

      You wouldn't see anything. You would be long dead before you hit the event horizon from gravitational shearing and compression forces.

      --
      You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
    5. Re:What does it look like? by fractoid · · Score: 1

      I'm talking 'observer' in the theoretical sense, although as others pointed out elsewhere on this discussion, supermassive (center-of-galaxy class) black holes are big enough that at the event horizon the gravity gradient is still pretty small, definitely small enough to be survivable by a human in a ship.

      So you could in theory observe all that freaky shit happening as you approach the event horizon. Then again you'd have somewhat of a hard time telling anyone outside the black hole about it...

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  5. What it's like by BobGregg · · Score: 5, Funny

    I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.

    I think it's a lot like that.

    1. Re:What it's like by orangesquid · · Score: 4, Funny

      $ /usr/games/bsd/nethole

      ** You are in a maze of twisty little distorted images, all alike.

      ** You have been eaten by an event horizon.

      $ # dammit

      --
      --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
  6. I already saw it by OglinTatas · · Score: 2, Funny

    back in 1979.
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078869/
    man, that V.I.N.CENT. was such a character!

    --
    More music, fewer hits
    1. Re:I already saw it by ShadowBlasko · · Score: 1

      B.O.B was always my fav. Well, Maximillion of course though .. For the evil ending win.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
  7. Black holes have an infinite radius by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...and a finite circumference. An observer falling towards the singularity would feel the local gradient in the gravitational field increase as they fall, probably to the point where staying in one piece becomes a challenge. This would go on for a long time from their POV.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
    1. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Informative

      Infinite radius would assume that time and position in space is NOT granular.

      If even time is granular, Tipler's Omega Point theory could not work.

      --
    2. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Informative

      It would take a long time from your point of view, on the outside. It would happen pretty fast for the sap who fell in.

    3. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by garlicbready · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This might be completely wrong

      I always thought that if you could see the outside universe as you were falling in the outside would appear to be moving faster and faster (from an inside perspective) the closer you got towards the center of the singularity. (effectively skipping ahead into the future faster and faster)

      since quite a lot of junk falls into a black hole especially over the period of the universe's lifetime, you'd probably see all sorts of large amounts of crap following in behind you at a tremendous speed (stars etc) until it got close enough to be affected by the same space time distortion, but never quite catching up to your point

      from an outside perspective if you could see what was happening beyond the event horizon, the stuff falling in would appear to move slower and slower the closer it got towards the center never quite reaching the center point
      which makes me wonder if someone falling into one of these things would actually reach the end of time itself a lot more quickly than everyone else on the outside (assuming there is such a thing)

    4. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Mozk · · Score: 1

      I think you're right. I remember reading that there is no indication that you've crossed the event horizon and nothing appears to have happened, while to an observer, you'll slowly descend to the center yet never reach it, just like you said. The things happening in the video don't really make sense from what I've learned.

      --
      No existe.
    5. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 1

      Time frames will approach infinity from the viewpoint of the external observer, as dictated by special relativity.

      The big question is what exactly happens at the surface and inside a black hole. And it depends on what exactly the nature of space and time are, and how they fail.

      We can make conjectures here, but the idea that there is something space-shattering happening there seems rather likely. The idea that a macro-figure Calabi-Yau shape that prevents the collapse past the event horizon seems probable, but more research needs to be done.

      --
    6. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Kagura · · Score: 1

      Nothing exciting happens at the event horizon. It's just the point at which you need infinite energy to leave the black hole's event horizon again. For very large black holes, such as that in the center of the Milky Way, a human can safely pass the event horizon and see what it looks like inside. Eventually, however, the human will be subjected to higher and higher tidal forces--but that has to do with the size of the black hole, not with the crossing of an event horizon.

    7. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 1

      I thought exciting things DID happen at the surface, namely the particle zoo that the quantum foam "contains". And if the entropy calculations are correct (which im sure they are), I'd like data on those perpendicular X-ray jets.

      --
    8. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      so what about Hawking radiation? For the outsider observer, an unfed black hole is continually shrinking (albeit slowly) while the subject falls very slowly into it. So wouldn't the (very long living) observer see the black hole shrink faster than the subject falls into it? But the subject must also come to the same conclusion, and so see the black hole shrink very rapidly as he approached it.

      Any flaws with my logic? :)

    9. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1

      It's hard to define "radius" in a Schwarzschild spacetime. Outside and up to the event horizon, the radial coordinate is defined indirectly by the surface area of a sphere, which is sqrt(area/4pi) and is finite. (The circumference is also finite.) However, the proper distance between points at two different radii is not equal to the difference of their radial coordinates.

      Inside a black hole, you can't even define a radius this way, because spacetime inside the horizon is no longer static, and there's no unique geometric way to separate time and space to define what a "spherical spatial surface" means.

      From the point of view of an infalling observer, they hit the singularity rather quickly. There is an exercise in Wald's textbook which shows that the maximum amount of time which can elapse before hitting the singularity is experienced by a freely falling observer, and (IIRC) is equal to pi*G*M/c^3 where M is the mass of the hole (G is the gravitational constant and c is the speed of light). That works out to be about 15 microseconds per solar mass. And that's the longest time you can experience. If you try to accelerate "away", you actually hit the singularity faster, according to your own proper time, due to time dilation effects.

    10. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is described in the book Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide by Clifford A. Pickover

    11. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1

      The previous poster is right; there is no local experiment you can perform at the horizon to determine whether you're at the horizon. You can see a lot of radiation if you hover at the horizon, but that's because you're expending energy to hover. Polar X-ray jets have nothing to do with the horizon, "quantum foam", Hawking radiation, or black hole entropy: they're due to matter and magnetic fields outside of the black hole.

    12. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congratulations, you've re-invented Zeno's Paradox.

    13. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      would also assume that circumference is not finite since c = 2pi(r)

    14. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      I expect (but am not going to do the math) that everything works out once you include the idea that if the event horizon is retreating (the hole is shrinking) then the time dilation effect is also not constant for a particular distance from the centre of the hole.

      Imagine an observer A who is falling towards a black hole at just the right speed to maintain position a certain distance from the event horizon. From the point of view of an outsider, B, because the event horizon is shrinking, A is approaching the singularity at a particular speed. B agrees that he is approaching the singularity, although, because of the time dilation, from his point of view he is approaching much more quickly than A measures.

      I think the situation is identical whether the event horizon is shrinking or not. If it is shrinking, the severity of the time dilation shrinks with it. The only difference would be that the outside observer sees A falling in slightly faster, consistent with the time dilation at any given radius becoming less severe over time.

    15. Re:Black holes have an infinite radius by Gavin+Polhemus · · Score: 1

      We think that you just fall in; you don't see the Hawking radiation or the hole shrinking. Your path into the black hole ends at the singularity before you see much happen to the black hole.

  8. Simpsons Did It by rackserverdeals · · Score: 3, Funny

    Simpsons did it

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    Dual Opteron < $600
    1. Re:Simpsons Did It by buchner.johannes · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't say "Simpsons did it", Southpark already did that.

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    2. Re:Simpsons Did It by geekoid · · Score: 1

      The Simpsons parodied the Simpsons well before southpark did.

      Just sayin'

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    3. Re:Simpsons Did It by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WHOOOOOOOOOSH!!

      nuff said

    4. Re:Simpsons Did It by fractoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm gonna have to whoosh a whoosh here.

      Whooosh! :)

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  9. Black hole = K hole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I've seen that before: whenever I take ketamine on an acid comedown. It looks just like that!

  10. How does it feel? by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

    About the same as it feels to be a bug hitting an Audi windscreen on the Autobahn... when you've been stretched to several hundred times your original length, you're most likely no longer capable of observing anything, so it looks pretty much like nothingness. Can a soul escape from the event horizon of a black hole, or is it doomed to spend forever in purgatory inside the black hole? And is that better or worse than being stuck in New Jersey?

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:How does it feel? by the_humeister · · Score: 1

      Well, at least with New Jersey, there's still the theoretical possibility of escape.

    2. Re:How does it feel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's always Hawking Radiation.

    3. Re:How does it feel? by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but you have to get out while you're young, if you're a tramp who was born to run.

    4. Re:How does it feel? by M-RES · · Score: 1

      I thought New Jersey was a point of ARRIVAL not departure. Or was Being John Malkovich NOT a documentary!?!?!?

    5. Re:How does it feel? by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      There's always Hawking Radiation.

      So that's the source of that Jersey smell?

      --
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  11. Same Guy, Cooler Graphics by lacoronus · · Score: 5, Informative

    The same person (Andrew Hamilton) is behind this website:

    Inside Black Holes

    Which has a lot cooler CG.

    1. Re:Same Guy, Cooler Graphics by coryking · · Score: 1

      Very cool! Too bad they don't transcode it to flash and use a free flash player on top. I hate downloading large video...

      (I'm just complaining in hopes the maintainer reads this and does exactly that)

    2. Re:Same Guy, Cooler Graphics by bughunter · · Score: 1

      Considering the title, I'm glad you linked to the Andrew Hamilton version and not the Seymour Butts version.

      --
      I can see the fnords!
  12. That animation IS NOT new by Cyberax · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's a nice site about black holes: http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schw.shtml

    It contains simple videos of what happens when you fall into a black hole. They are just animated GIFs, because this site existed long before YouTube and Flash movies.

    1. Re:That animation IS NOT new by jd · · Score: 1

      Besides which, APNGs cannot escape a black hole. They degrade into animated GIFs when converted to Hawking Radiation.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  13. Re:In other words by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Insightful

    True. On the other hand, if I stuck you on the surface of Titan, you'd be dead, too. So it's pretty pointless to envision the surface of Titan or send probes there or anything like that.

  14. This isn't news... by Quantos · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It doesn't tell us anything about what they actually did, or how the resultant program functions.
    It simply regurgitates things that we think we already know, with a video.

    --
    Some people are only alive because it's against the law for me to hunt them down and kill them.
    1. Re:This isn't news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but they're almost up to 1500 links to newpseudoscientist!

      http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Awww.newscientist.com+site%3Aslashdot.org

      I'd prefer just ads for the site instead of the never ending pseudo-science spam articles.

  15. Re:In other words by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. Reaching a black hole is not impossible with current technology, but it is beside the point.

    2. This is a research tool intended to help physicists understand what happens to matter as it enters a black hole.

    3. Using all your grant money to run on an SGI cluster is so... 1990s. This was probably rendered on a modern laptop. If the calculations really did turn out to be too computationally intensive for a modern personal computer (I wouldn't count on it), they would have bought time on one of the more modern Linux or Mac computing clusters.

    4. "Cool" is not the purpose. If it was, there wouldn't be fun guide-lines left in the film. This is a research tool that happened to get passed on to NewScientist to share with anyone who might be interested.

    --
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  16. Goatse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was I the only one thinking it?

    1. Re:Goatse? by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Yes.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  17. Not as fun as Disney's version by mugnyte · · Score: 1

    Supposedly, it looks like a cheap graphic. I think it looks more like this :P

    1. Re:Not as fun as Disney's version by buchner.johannes · · Score: 1

      Very realistic, except at 1:00 his thoughts are "that girl naked" ... even funnier with the "whaaa" :-)

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  18. Re:Hmmm... by momerath2003 · · Score: 1

    "A code" in the lingo of the scientific programming community means "a computer program that simulates these equations in an expedient manner," i.e. there is more than one way to discretize and program the solution of the equations, but they have done it in one specific way. It is therefore "a computer code."

    --
    I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
  19. Uh oh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Somebody divided by zero,
    Oh shhhhhhiiiiii------------

  20. Re:In other words by DRJlaw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Once you came near the event horizon (given current technology) you would more than likely be dead, so this is a pretty pointless video...

    Pointless unless you've studied relativistic physics, in which case the video is a modernized version of the classic thought experiment "Einstein's Train.". Everyone involved would be pretty dead if the train was moving at speeds fast enough to introduce relativistic effects perceptable by the ordinary senses, yet the illustration aids in an understanding of the physics.

    The article is quite clear:

    That's where visualisations like this might just help. "Close to the singularity, it appears that the entire three-dimensional universe is being crushed into a two-dimensional surface," says Hamilton (see Our world may be a giant hologram). But whether it hints that a 2D view is more fundamental is not yet clear. "Does it have any profound significance? I don't know..."

    The death of the hypothetical observer is irrelevant to the usefulness of the video.

  21. Re:In other words by linzeal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Figuring out the Riemann geometry for this was non-trivial and should be lauded not dismissed as some trivial "cutesy video".

    --
    An Education is the Font of All Liberty
  22. 1440 links to NewScientist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Awww.newscientist.com+site%3Aslashdot.org

    Come on guys, almost up to 1500!

    Good lord, it is so transparent. How about banner ads from them instead?

  23. erm... by M-RES · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...dark?

    1. Re:erm... by jd · · Score: 1

      Olber's Paradox says that the sky should be infinitely bright in all directions. In a black hole, this might actually be the case, as there's nothing to obstruct the view and nowhere else for the photons to go.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    2. Re:erm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As light accelerates towards the black hole, it takes the opposite of a doppler red shift as it is bent in by gravity.
      As this blue shift happens, the wavelengths move from, say, low-energy red colors to violet, to other lethal sorts of invisible radiation like X rays and Gamma rays.

      Wouldn't wanna be there.

    3. Re:erm... by rastos1 · · Score: 1

      ...dark?

      That sucks.

    4. Re:erm... by jd · · Score: 1

      Hulk wanna go. Hulk wanna be big and strong. Hulk angry cannot go get more gamma.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  24. The other view by t3sser4ct · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you were falling into a black hole, I think it would be far more interesting to do so while facing away from the hole, as this would theoretically (according to relativity) allow you to witness the remaining life of the universe played out at a greatly accelerated rate.

    1. Re:The other view by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      the remaining life of the universe played out at a greatly accelerated rate.

      Well, it would seem that they have some problems producing a realistic animation for that case... I wonder what they are? ~

    2. Re:The other view by The_mad_linguist · · Score: 1

      That's how it works in MS-Paint Adventures, which scrupulously avoids any scientific inaccuracies.

    3. Re:The other view by BugBlatterBeast · · Score: 1

      Can you explain that a bit better? I thought time dilation would shorten the "apparent" time for the person accelerating into the black hole. This site (http://jilawww.colorado.edu/~ajsh/insidebh/schw.html) has an apparent time of 16 seconds which is not exactly the life of the universe.

      --
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  25. Well by rob1980 · · Score: 1

    I'm sure it would suck.

  26. Re:In other words by rts008 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This was probably rendered on a modern laptop.

    After finding this website, I would say you are correct.

    There is also a "Step by Step into a Black Hole" of similar images as the video in TFA. Worth looking at if this is an interest.

    I also found a cool animation of a simulated "Flight through a Wormhole".

    It all just seems basic animation. Cool, but nothing really ground breaking.

    I imagine that the models used to base the animation on could have taken some resources.

    P.S. I would hope the comment you replied to was a failed attempt at humour. Surely he was jesting!

    --
    Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
  27. Wrong URL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wrong URL.
    Try this one and you'll REALLY see what it's like to fall into a black hole.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/31/AR2009033103684.html

  28. youw voiwce dowes fuwny thiwngs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    narrator has a really annoying speech impediment.

  29. Re:Hmmm... by CannonballHead · · Score: 1

    Citation? Not that I necessarily doubt you but this is news to me, I wouldn't mind reading a bit on it. It seems to me to be a very odd usage of the word "code."

  30. Article summary... by Zapotek · · Score: 1

    ..."what happens there is still a mystery."

  31. Seen it by Repton · · Score: 1

    I remember seeing a couple of documentaries on this a while ago...

    --
    Repton.
    They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
  32. Not all that paradoxical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really, black holes emit energy in the form of gamma rays and who knows what else that we don't know about. They don't just absorb everything while never releasing any energy. So when you think about it they aren't all that different from other stuff in space except for the fact that they absorb light and other weird things.

  33. I call it... by samriel · · Score: 1

    I call it a Hawking Hole.

  34. I fell into a black hole once by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Her name was Shoshonda, and she was a big girl.

  35. Re:In other words by kv9 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Making cute videos and sending probes are two entirely different things.

    youre a fucking idiot. you think they chuck those things into space from a big slingshot without making cutesy simulations based on hard math first?

    --
    Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
  36. It looks just like this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like this ----> . Just a whole lot bigger.

    1. Re:It looks just like this by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      So just like a piece of grit?

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  37. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once you came near the event horizon (given current technology) you would more than likely be dead...

    Not necessarily. Supermassive black holes' radii are so large that gravitational shear is something you probably wouldn't even notice as you passed through the event horizon. Entire human generations on a planet or spaceship could potentially be born, live out their lives, and die naturally, all while within one of these monsters, before the effects of gravity were to tear them apart.

  38. Duh by geekoid · · Score: 0

    It would look black~

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but how much more black could it look? The answer is none. None more black.

  39. Re:In other words by amRadioHed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Depends on the size of the black hole. For a large black hole you would make it past the event horizon before the gravitational gradient is strong enough to tear you apart.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  40. There is a grue here. by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

    You'll probably be eaten by a grue.

    Defy this cruel fate! "Frotz" a Grue today!

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  41. I expected a different ending by aarku · · Score: 1

    Did anyone else expect the video to lead into this at the end? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRhPM2wMzH8 Just checking.

  42. Re:In other words by khellendros1984 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're quite correct that making a video and sending a probe are two entirely different things. I somehow doubt that the video took a few hundred million to make, while still providing a potentially useful visualization of something that I somehow doubt we'll witness first hand.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  43. Re:In other words by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

    Reaching a black hole is not impossible with current technology, but it is beside the point.

    Yes it is. It would take millennia if not millions of years to reach the closest black hole with current technology. We can't build anything that would be able to power itself for that long, nevermind that humanity would most likely be extinct by the time we reached it.

    Well, good thing then that we're working on building our own locally. Anyone care for spaghetti?

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  44. Singularity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't get this, why do astrophysicists only use general relativity for their calculations. I thought a singularity was an infinitely dense point, something quantum physics rules out as impossible.

    1. Re:Singularity? by Gavin+Polhemus · · Score: 1

      We use general relativity until we get to the singularity. Then the video stops. Up until that point general relativity is fine.

  45. Related work: Greg Egan's website by uid8472 · · Score: 1

    Greg Egan's website has a little Java applet to visualise what happens to light around a black hole, dated 2001.

    He's got a bunch of other fun stuff there, explaining/"demonstrating" the strange physics (real and theoretical) used in his books and stories.

  46. Hope it is faster than real time by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    Considering that a black hole is more massive than the sun, then it will take longer to fall into the black hole than for the earth to fall into the sun and the sun will go nova before the simulation ends...

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    1. Re:Hope it is faster than real time by cowscows · · Score: 1

      If there's some sort of sarcasm implied in your comment, then I don't get it. If you're making a serious comment, then you're making even less sense.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  47. Missing tag by pklinken · · Score: 1

    yourmom

  48. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought with a supermassive black hole, the tidal forces at the event horizon are not that great, so that a person might pass through and not even know it if there was not much matter nearby (granted, unlikely for a supermassive black hole)

  49. Obligatory troll by PPH · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The Microsoft R&D division.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  50. Cliffhanger by tsa · · Score: 1

    What a cliffhanger. Just when it gets interesting it stops! I hope "Falling into a Black Hole II - The Sequel" comes out soon.

    --

    -- Cheers!

  51. Its just like Vegas by CrazyJim1 · · Score: 1

    What happens in a black hole stays in the black hole.

    --
    God spoke to me.
    1. Re:Its just like Vegas by nanospook · · Score: 1

      What happens if a black hole falls into a black hole? Mayhem? New universe? Walmart?

      --
      Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
  52. Re:Hmmm... by fractoid · · Score: 1

    Well, if they want to mutilate the language of my profession like that, I shall build a research based on an algorithm.

    --
    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  53. Re:In other words by fractoid · · Score: 1

    Spaghettification. Let me guess. I can see only two options: one -- due to the bizarre effects of the intense gravitational pull, and because we're entering a region of time and space where the laws of physics no longer apply, we all of us inexplicably develop an irresistible urge to consume vast amounts of a certain wheat-based Italian noodle conventionally served with Parmesan cheese; or two -- we, the crew, get turned into spaghetti. I have a feeling we can eliminate option one.

    Mmmm, nearly lunchtime.

    --
    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  54. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, good luck with producing anything besides hypothetical micro singularities that don't evaporate in a picosecond. There isn't enough power in the entire solar system to create a real black hole.

  55. Re:In other words by Starmengau · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can report with certainty that this was rendered (or at least CAN be rendered) on a modern laptop; I attended Professor Hamilton's course on Black Holes in which he used the Black Hole Simulator. It ran at this quality in real-time (including changing angles, time dilation, and different types of black holes) on a 2005 Alienware laptop running Gentoo.

    --
    Please help me pay for room & board.
  56. It would look black by ZodLogic_Games · · Score: 1

    Very black.

  57. The black holes speak to you by Skapare · · Score: 1

    All your mass are belong to us!

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  58. Re:In other words by Kagura · · Score: 1

    What you said is 100% correct, but there is a LOT of radiation that is deadly to humans associated with the in-falling matter that is falling in.

    Fall in

  59. Re:In other words by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Once you came near the event horizon (given current technology) you would more than likely be dead, so this is a pretty pointless video...

    Well unless you're equipped with an oxygen supply, heat-resistant tiles and a serious acceleration compensator I would suggest you avoid, at all costs, using Google Earth.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  60. Hackers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was the best movie of all time.

  61. Don't go there without flashlight by GNUThomson · · Score: 1

    The real question is: What happens when you fall into black hole and turn on a flashlight there?

    1. Re:Don't go there without flashlight by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Well, if you manage to switch it on before you die, it just shines until it's destroyed. But nobody from outside could see it.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  62. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone involved would be pretty dead if the train was moving at speeds fast enough to introduce relativistic effects perceptable by the ordinary senses, yet the illustration aids in an understanding of the physics.

    Speed does not kill, acceleration does. If you accelerate the "train" at 1g, it would take only one year to reach about 0.77c, more than enough to see relativistic effects.

  63. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hamilton and Polhemus built a computer code based on the equations

    The use of the word "code" in that manner is slightly unusual but is actually quite in line with the accepted meanings of the word code.

  64. AWESOME!! by cfriedt · · Score: 1

    AWESOME!!

  65. Re:In other words by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

    Speed does not kill, acceleration does. If you accelerate the "train" at 1g, it would take only one year to reach about 0.77c, more than enough to see relativistic effects.

    An anonymous comment that relies upon particular assumptions that are forbidden by the nature of the scenario. Like a train traveling through a vacuum, so that the train isn't destroyed by atmospheric resistance and the external observer isn't killed by the shockwave -- but the vacuum can conduct lightning. Like a train traveling in a straight line at 0.77c, so that centriptal forces and acceleration are unnecessary -- a space train struck by lightning. Nevermind that you've missed the entire point, that the situation is hypothetical, yet assumed the existence of hypothetical technology that can accelerate at 9/8 m/s/s for a year in a vacuum. The first example is due to speed. The second example is due to an unaccounted for acceleration. Both kill. Pick that nit. Nitwit.

  66. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Reaching a black hole is not impossible with current technology, but it is beside the point.

    Yes it is.. It would take millennia if not millions of years to reach the closest black hole with current technology. We can't build anything that would be able to power itself for that long, nevermind that humanity would most likely be extinct by the time we reached it.

  67. Not true by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1

    Falling into a black hole does not allow you to see the end of the universe. (The FAQ I linked to discusses one case in which a perfectly symmetric, rotating vacuum black hole does experience infinite blueshift, but the existence of matter or quantum gravity effects very likely destroy that property of the black hole.)

  68. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Speed does not kill, acceleration does. If you accelerate the "train" at 1g, it would take only one year to reach about 0.77c, more than enough to see relativistic effects.

    Speed kills if you run into a "stationary" particle at 0.77c.

  69. As every physicist knows... by He+Who+Waits · · Score: 1

    ...what happens in the singularity stays in the singularity.

    1. Re:As every physicist knows... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      ...what happens in the singularity stays in the singularity.

      That's not always true. What happened in the big bang singularity indeed did spread throughout the whole universe.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  70. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm, I think you missed the beginning of the lecture. That was actually him doing a stage-1 install...

  71. Use the Rocinante by foiled_again · · Score: 1

    Rush has it figured out! http://www.poemhunter.com/song/cygnus-x-1/ http://www.poemhunter.com/song/cygnus-x-1-book-ii-hemispheres/

  72. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe so, but who can verify the video is accurate? Though I've never actually fallen into a black hole, I have no reason to believe that it would look like a crappy Geiss clone.

    Perhaps replace the hum-drum voiceover with a kickass techno track? That usually works for Geiss, maybe through some quantum audio wave thing it would also work for the black hole.

  73. Re:In other words by Gavin+Polhemus · · Score: 1

    Andrew Hamilton also made HD versions used in a planetarium show, a NOVA program, and a program on National Geographic. We do hope to get many more people interested in science, as well as improve our understanding of black holes.

  74. Re:In other words by Gavin+Polhemus · · Score: 1

    These visualizations can be done, in HD, on Andrew Hamilton's laptop in a few minutes of computing time.