The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently shared a simulation video depicting the appearance of a black hole—a concept that remains difficult for many to visualize, even after reading several books on the subject. NASA humorously warns, “Don’t stare too long, or you might get sucked in.” Those who have watched the video admit that black holes indeed possess a strange “pull.”
The mysteries of the vast universe have always captivated most people. Among these, one concept frequently mentioned yet hard to imagine is the black hole.
NASA has just released a video simulating the appearance of a black hole as seen from its edge. This video illustrates the immense gravitational force of a black hole, which can distort our view by bending the surrounding environment, much like looking into funhouse mirrors at an amusement park.
Here is the video:
Source: NASA.
The video also shows matter being pulled in, forming a thin and super-hot structure (which can reach millions of degrees), known as the accretion disk. The extreme gravitational force of the black hole alters the path of light from different regions of the disk, creating that distorted appearance. At the center lies the shadow of the black hole, considered a “point of no return” since nothing can escape from it.
“Don’t stare too long at this video; you might get sucked in.” – NASA warns. Of course, no one is actually getting sucked into the screen, but netizens agree that the images of the black hole are mesmerizing, almost hypnotic, and quite impressive.
There has been a theory suggesting that anything sucked into a black hole might be “spat out” somewhere else in the universe at some point in the future, akin to traversing through space-time. (Image: Shutterstock).
NASA states that this image of the black hole was first created several years ago, and they are reposting it in honor of Black Hole Week (May 2 – 6, 2022). NASA acknowledges that “there is still much to learn” about this mysterious concept.
Jeremy Schnittman, who used NASA’s software to create the video, asserts that it is not easy to visualize what Einstein described—that gravity bends both space and time.
