Big Math News! It’s Been Thirty Years Since Mathematicians Last Found A Convex Pentagon That Could

To visualise the black hole in Interstellar, the VFX team collaborated with theoretical physicist Kip Thorne to solve the equations for propagation of light around a spinning black hole. The shape is due to way light is lensed (deflected) by the strong gravitational field of the black hole. The asymmetry is caused by the relativistic time dilation near the event horizon.

The top image shows the black hole in the movie. The bottom image is a more accurate visualisation taking into account Doppler and gravitational frequency shifts. This was considered too confusing for the audience. They also slowed the black hole’s spin down from that required to explain the time dilation experienced in the movie, to make the black hole appear less asymmetric.

The are releasing two papers on their work, the first of which is available in preprint on arXiv.

The Supernova 1994D

A photo of Saturn. Took by Cassini with COISS on September 01, 2004 at 08:15:35. Detail page on OPUS database.

Image of the galaxy NGC 5866

A photo of S Rings, a ring near Saturn. Took by Cassini with COISS on March 04, 2013 at 08:56:39. Detail page on OPUS database.

A photo of S Rings, a ring near Saturn. Took by Cassini with COISS on October 02, 2008 at 18:38:16. Detail page on OPUS database.

Ever wonder about what lies between the stars? Learn all about the interstellar medium in this short video! Follow Evant Horizon for more astronomy posts!

The interstellar medium is the gas and dust between stars. Of its mass, this gas is composed of mainly hydrogen and helium with a touch of heavier elements. Highly dense regions of the ISM known as molecular clouds are directly responsible for the formation of stars.

The Milky Way in a beautiful photo by Luca Cruciani

(3 June 1965) — Overall view of the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, during the early hours of the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight. Photo credit: NASA

Milky Way over Devils Tower

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