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New Interactive Black Hole Simulation Published

Posted by timothy on from the watch-for-these-danger-signs dept.

quaith writes "The New Scientist reports on a simulation just published in the American Journal of Physics that shows how the sky would appear in the vicinity of a black hole — if an observer could actually get near one. Using real positions of around 118,000 stars, the simulation shows how the bending of light, the frequency shift, and the magnification caused by gravitational lensing and aberration in the vicinity of the black hole affect the sky's appearance. The simulation is interactive and allows the user to explore the stellar sky around the black hole. The simulation offers a couple of modes: 'quasi static' or 'freely falling' and the sample videos are quite spectacular. The New Scientist has a writeup, with an embedded video . The original article citation is here (abstract only). The simulation, which runs on Linux or Windows, as well as sample videos, can be downloaded from the University of Stuttgart website."

25 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    does it...

    which runs on Linux

    Oh. sorry.

  2. why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why are they releasing that code? People are just going to try to find something wrong with it!

  3. Warning! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whatever you do, for the love of all things good, Do Not invoke the simulation program with the -goatse switch....

  4. Not new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Alain Riazuelo at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics similar stuff years ago and even published a special DVD in a French magazine. It is sad they do not credit him at all, not very ethical.

    http://www2.iap.fr/users/riazuelo/bh/index.html

    1. Re:Not new by Radtoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not ethical? Why should this person be credited?
      Is the program code taken from Alain Riazuelo, or did he perhaps invent the theory behind Black Holes that made it possible to write the program from the article?

      Because what is asked in research is only that the persons whose work the current publication is based on are credited, both for the sake of their achievement and to enable verification of theories that isn't only superficial (current publication).

    2. Re:Not new by gardyloo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Perhaps, but it's common (and, I would argue, right) to mention work which has gone before, whether or not it was exactly the same. It gives alternative routes of learning about the given subject (which is, after all, the whole point of publishing results in the first place, right?). Sure, if the work isn't immediately applicable, then do it in a footnote or appendix, but unless one is totally unaware of the previously published (or even unpublished) work, it's better to be comprehensive than parochial.

  5. Re:Link, needs torrent. by paul248 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, I'm at 155/262MB currently. I'll create the torrent myself when it's done (~ 11 minutes)

  6. Yes, but... by 2.7182 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    is there really anyway to check the correctness of this?

    1. Re:Yes, but... by shaitand · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The actual correctness? no. and there probably never will be.

      I'm sure physics geeks will be heartily debating the THEORETICAL correctness any minute now. After all, what else would they be doing on a saturday night

    2. Re:Yes, but... by blindseer · · Score: 5, Funny

      After all, what else would they be doing on a saturday night

      Posting on Slashdot?

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    3. Re:Yes, but... by iluvcapra · · Score: 2, Informative

      IANAP, but I seem to recall that images that depict gravitational lenses tend to show stars near the lens deforming into arcs; in this movie stars in the background remain points, even though at least some of them would deform into arcs as they passed behind the object.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    4. Re:Yes, but... by HeronBlademaster · · Score: 4, Informative

      After all, what else would they be doing on a saturday night

      How about playing Star Trek Online on one monitor while watching Farscape (via Netflix) on the other monitor?

  7. Sloppy programming by AnotherAnonymousUser · · Score: 2, Funny

    What, they can't directly apply the compression methods they're simulating and create a 1byte file from the entire zip?

    1. Re:Sloppy programming by Megane · · Score: 2, Funny

      Here it is in hexadecimal: 2A

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  8. Neil deGrasse Tyson's explanation of falling in: by dlawson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's posted on Youtube here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNc-JLysk9Y&feature=related

    Watch 'til the end, the terminology is nothing short of cosmically hilarious.
    Dave Lawson, astrogeek.

    --
    dot-sig.
  9. Re:Link, needs torrent. by paul248 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Got it. Here's a torrent:
    http://www.legittorrents.info/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=26f463c791852abe4790e4b6b2dbe3fdab7b2413

  10. Well, if nothing else ... by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2

    This definitely qualifies as "News for Nerds".

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  11. Black hole Sun by masmullin · · Score: 2

    In my eyes, in disposed, In disguise as no one knows
    Hides the face, Lies the snake, the sun in my disgrace
    Boiling heat, summer stench 'neath the black the sky looks dead
    Call my name through the cream and I'll hear you scream again

    Black hole sun
    Won't you come
    And wash away the rain

    Stuttering cold and damp steal the warm wind tired friend
    Times are gone for honest men and sometimes far too long for snakes
    In my shoes walking sleep in my youth I prayed to keep
    Heaven send, Hell away

    __No one sings like you anymore__

    Black hole sun
    Won't you come
    And wash away the rain

    Hang my head drown my fear till you all just
    Disappear

    Black hole sun
    Won't you come
    And wash away the rain

  12. TORRENT by shaitand · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.rentalgeek.com/downloads/ibhs.torrent

    This has full data file, linux binary, and windows binary.

    Also, this has been uploaded to Elbitz if you prefer private tracker.

  13. Re:That sucked by stokessd · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is how you do it:

    I just downloaded the simulation and the first thing it printed was:
    "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a black hole"

  14. Re:Why was this done? by Legion303 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I imagine you would first have to move to Germany, then get a job at the University of Stuttgart. Then ask the German government for funding before someone reminds you that universities provide their own funding and usually don't require much justification for the research they choose to produce.

  15. Re:One (missing) part that's apparently not simula by kvezach · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If that's true, how can black holes grow at all? The time dilation effect would seem to suggest that nothing ever reaches the event horizon, because time slows down so it falls increasingly slowly towards the hole. Something must be wrong, because black holes can grow -- but what is it?

  16. Re:Acceleration disk missing by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nit-pick - the thing you're thinking of is called an accretion disk, not an acceleration disk.

    --
    It's official. Most of you are morons.
  17. Re:One (missing) part that's apparently not simula by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well that would happen at the event horizon, which by definition is the "edge" of the black hole anyway.

    --
    It's official. Most of you are morons.
  18. Looks like Giedi Prime from Dune by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That black hole in the video looks almost exactly like Giedi Prime from Dune...

    --
    Slashdot's first reaction to VMware