Beyond the Brink: Tracking a Simulated Plunge into a Black Hole

In this all-sky view, the camera approaches a supermassive black hole weighing 4.3 million Suns. It is about 70 million miles (113 million kilometers) from the black hole’s event horizon, the boundary of no return. It’s moving inward at 19% the speed of light — nearly 127 million mph (205 million kph). A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds the black hole and serves as a visual reference during the fall, as do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times. A backdrop of the starry sky completes the scene.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell

The camera is closing on the far side of the photon rings, the thin orange circles inside the broader disk, in this all-sky view. The camera’s speed also brightens light directly ahead, an effect of relativity called Doppler boosting, which makes the part of the disk in the center of the image look whiter. Between the disk and the photon rings, look for a distorted image of the starry background. The camera is some 31 million miles (50 million kilometers) away and moving inward at 41% the speed of light — nearly 275 million mph (442 million kph).

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell

Detail of a frame where the camera is about 27 million miles away (44 million kilometers) from the black hole, moving at 51% the speed of light (342 million mph, 550 million kph). The bright accretion disk makes a shallow U shape from left to right while the glowing band of the Milky Way arcs upward, severely distorted by the warped space-time. The glowing objects near the center of the frame are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of our own. Below the accretion disk is a faint, warped image of the background stars.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell

Now moving at 62% the speed of light (416 million mph, 670 million kph), the camera more obviously shows the effect of Doppler boosting, brightening features in the direction of motion at the center of the image. In this all-sky view, a warped image of the background sky is visible between the disk and the photon rings, but look closely. The Magellanic Clouds are visible both at center and at right as fainter, distorted images. The camera is about 10 million miles (16 million km) from the black hole’s event horizon.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell

At 69% of light speed (463 million mph, 745 million kph), both the accretion disk and the starry background in the direction of camera motion (center) appear brighter due to Doppler boosting. Another relativistic effect is becoming noticeable as well. Light coming from the sides now appears to shift progressively forward, a phenomenon called relativistic aberration. In this all-sky view, the complete arc of the Milky Way and much of the accretion disk appear near the center of the image in the travel direction. The camera is about 8 million miles (13 million km) from the event horizon.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell

Detail of the view at 76% of light speed (510 million mph, 830 million kph) and about 3.8 million miles (6.3 million km) from the event horizon. The stars, accretion disk, and photon rings at the center of the image are brightened and shifted further forward.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell

This detail shows a view 10 degrees across — about the width of a fist at arm’s length — in the direction of travel at 99.2% the speed of light (665 million mph, 1.07 billion kph) relative to the background stars. Much of the sky fits within this small view. The camera is 7 million miles (12 million kilometers below the event horizon.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell