(NewsNation) — A new visualization produced by NASA takes viewers on a journey to a black hole’s point of no return, also known as the event horizon.
The journey, which was produced using a NASA supercomputer, includes multiple experiences, including an explainer video that acts as a sightseeing guide and explains Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
“People often ask about this, and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations. “So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”
According to NASA, the simulated event horizon spans about 16 million miles or about 17% of the distance from Earth to the Sun.