A recent NASA simulation has visualized what it would be like to fall into a supermassive black hole, on the order of 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun. These astronomical objects hide many unknowns, but thanks to modern technology, we can get an idea of what it would be like to enter one.
At the outset, we can mention that the optical spectacle will not be missing. Additionally, the researchers in charge of the simulation recommend that if you ever have to choose which type of black hole to fall into, choose a supermassive one.
First of all, let’s make it clear what a black hole is. According to Kip Thorne, theoretical physicist, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize and scientific advisor to Christopher Nolan for the film Interstellarin his book The Science of Interstellarmentions the following about these interesting and complex objects:
“Black holes are made of warped space and warped time. Nothing else, no matter.”
But, if we are talking about supermassive black holes, and we measure them taking the Sun as a reference, Why doesn’t Kip Thorne involve matter in his explanation? In that statement, Thorne is highlighting two of the most counterintuitive and surprising ideas about these singularities in the universe: although they are formed by the collapse of matter, their nature is to manifest “strange” properties in the geometry of space-time.
That is why in the video that NASA recently showed, you can see how space begins to deform. The simulation was carried out thinking that a camera fell into the black hole.
According to a publication on the official portal of this space agency, as the camera approaches the black hole, its speed is increasing, until reaching magnitudes close to those of light. “The glow from the accretion disk and background stars are amplified similar to the sound of an approaching race car. [a ti]“, you can read. In a few words, something similar to the Doppler effect.
Warping the view of background space means we can see objects behind the hole or in really strange geometries, lengthening, warping and stretching what we see. This will continue to occur with still unknown effects until we reach “the singularity”, the center of the hole, a specific place where physics “as we know it, stops operating“.
Recommendations for falling into a black hole
As wonderful as the simulation is, it is something we won’t be able to verify anytime soon. And Kip Thorne himself addresses a similar problem in The Science of Interstellar:
“If I fall into a black hole with a microwave transmitter, once I pass through the hole’s event horizon, I will be dragged inexorably downward toward the hole’s singularity. And any signal I try to transmit in any way will be dragged down with me “No one above the horizon can see the signals I send after crossing the horizon. My signal and I are trapped inside the black hole.”
So now you know, If you really want to know what the universe looks like from inside a black hole, You should look for the closest one to try it on your own.. Of course, Jeremy Schnittman, astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and creator of the simulation, gives you some advice on the matter: “If you have the choice, you’ll want to fall into a supermassive black hole“.
This is because holes with masses similar to those of the Sun (up to 30 times the mass of our star) generate much more focused tidal forces than those of supermassive black holes, with smaller event horizons. That way, it is very, very possible that you will end up destroyed long before reaching the horizon, where there is no point of return.
