NASA simulation shows what it’s like to fall into a black hole
NASA, the North American space agency, shared a video this week that shows what a “dive” into a black hole would be like.
The simulation was carried out by an agency supercomputer in commemoration of the “Black Hole Week”, an event that seeks to highlight recent discoveries, research and projects related to these celestial bodies.
In the video, it is possible to see some interesting phenomena caused by the extreme gravity of the black hole, such as the increase in the luminosity of stars and the distortion of space-time, which makes distant objects appear multiple and distorted.
The animation shows a camera approaching, taking a quick turn, and then passing through the event horizon – the point at which nothing can escape this cosmic abyss.
When any object crosses the event horizon of a black hole, that is, their “edge”, there is no longer any escape.
Gravity is so intense at this point that this object goes through a process known as spaghettification: it is torn apart by the gravitational field of the black hole in a shape that resembles spaghetti, in thin and elongated shapes.
This happens because at the center of the black hole we have a point so small and massive that its density reaches infinity, which is something inexplicable by current physics and mathematics.
This heart of the black hole, called the singularity, it is where space and time cease to exist as we currently know them.
“Simulating these hard-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity with real consequences in the universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, a NASA astrophysicist who created the visualizations.
