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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."

8 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. 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.
  4. 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

  5. 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.
  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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?