In anticipation of the first image of a black hole, Jordy Davelaar and colleagues built a virtual reality simulation of one of these fascinating astrophysical objects. Their simulation shows a black hole surrounded by luminous matter. This matter disappears into the black hole in a vortex-like way, and the extreme conditions cause it to become a glowing plasma. The light emitted is then deflected and deformed by the powerful gravity of the black hole.
<p>More information and download options: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1907i/">http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1907i/</a>
</p><p>Credit:
</p>
Jordy Davelaar et al./Radboud University/BlackHoleCam
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ESOobservatory">European Southern Observatory (ESO)</a>
CC BY 3.0
<bdo lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:YouTube_files" title="Commons:YouTube files">YouTube</a>: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqzO9qTtCDs"><bdi lang="">Simulation of a Supermassive Black Hole (VR)</bdi></a> – View/save archived versions on <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqzO9qTtCDs">archive.org</a> and <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.today/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqzO9qTtCDs">archive.today</a></bdo>