"It's ray tracing, Jim. But not as we know it!"
So, if one actually had a blackhole obscuring the starfield a few AUs away, one could easily deduce its spin by just looking for the whirled-up caustics?
Interstellar sci-fi WORMS its way into spinning black hole science FACT
Boffins who worked alongside Hollywood film-makers on the Oscar-nominated sci-fi flick Interstellar reckon they've come up with new discoveries that reveal the "powerful effects" of black holes – all thanks to the computer code that was used for the movie. As The Register reported back in October, theoretical physicist Kip …
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Saturday 14th February 2015 18:22 GMT MondoMan
The black hole took a bite out of the text...
Typo: In " ...show the effects of gravitational lensing – a simulated camera method...", the missing words -- perhaps "by using" -- should be restored in place of the "– ", as gravitational lensing itself is not a simulated camera method.
Of course, if our universe itself is in fact just a giant simulation, no change is necessary. :)
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Sunday 15th February 2015 01:57 GMT bri
Re: Proof?
What proofs are you talking about regarding empirical science, such as physics? The best you can do is to find out that your model/hypothesis is not in conflict with current observations and possibly that the alternative model is indeed in conflict. You can't mathematically/logically prove anything of consequence though.
The empirical knowledge may change (and often does change) with more thorough observation. In real world, proofs are useful only within models which give them constraints, something to hook up to. We don't live in an idealized model however.
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Sunday 15th February 2015 11:15 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Proof?
I guess they mean, both use maths and engineering and "science", one to construct an arch and a solid building, one to construct an image of a black hole.
But they are not in the pursuit of science themselves. I'd rather a scientist be wrong and know why, than an artist accidentally be right and think they understand. We need both understanding and the correct goals.
(For reasons why doing the math alone is not good enough, see the other 99% of Hollywood movies that cause crimes against science, logic, and nature :P ).
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Sunday 15th February 2015 14:40 GMT Steve Knox
Re: Proof?
But they are not in the pursuit of science themselves. I'd rather a scientist be wrong and know why, than an artist accidentally be right and think they understand. We need both understanding and the correct goals.
This is very much in the pursuit of science. Science goes (1) observation -> (2) hypothesis -> (3) prediction -> (4) test (via observation or experimentation) -> (5) replacement/refinement of hypothesis -> (3).
This is a prediction based on current hypotheses of the behavior of black holes. The method used for this can be extended beyond visible light and to distances further than used for the movie. So this prediction model can be tested against future observations to further test our understanding, and may be useful in determining if and how much a given black hole is spinning.
And your mischaracterization of "scientist" vs "artist" and how they interact with their world does disservice to both.
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Sunday 15th February 2015 09:29 GMT amanfromMars 1
New Virtual Future Deals ...... with Novel Ways Forward
When Double Negative Gravitational Rendering is applied and in a Specialized Application Program is it AI Primed and a Positive Production Picture Promotion Vessel ..... A New Model Armoured Prize Starship.
And Proper Preparation and Positive Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance Permitting Prime Prize Penetration and Perfect Private Pursuit of Public Projects and Pirate ProgramMING Parameters Production of the Present from the Past.
<:-)> And just the sort of Practically Real Virtual Reality Production Facility and Ab Fab Fabless Capability that a Mad Manic Mayhem with an Almighty Media Meme in a Crisis and Crashing Mode and Covetous of CHAOS too, with Clouds Hosting and Harbouring Armed Operations Systems and Advanced Operating Systems, would seek to Enjoin and Employ?! ........ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/13/executive-order-promoting-private-sector-cybersecurity-information-shari ....... however such can be just as but one struggling bit player in a titanic field of epic dream makers and future builders with so much more interesting and rewarding to offer.
cc Hostages of NSA/GCHQ/Unit 61938/FSB/AIVD/Mossad/etc. as well as Master Dream Weavers Incorporated such as Wannabe AI Double Negative and Yetzira Ivrit.
And yes, that is AICoded Communication for a Transparent Clandestine Class of Covert Cyber Counterintelligence too.
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Sunday 15th February 2015 17:34 GMT amanfromMars 1
Re: New Virtual Future Deals ...... with Novel Ways Forward
NB .... Lack of cogent feedback in an unaccompanied with positive comment anonymous down vote is surely an undoubted sign of a number of missing links which have rendered to an activated and/or reactionary poster, a subject matter ignorance?
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Sunday 15th February 2015 18:50 GMT Bob Vistakin
Can't be right
You'd not ever see the black part that way. The matter is being sucked in all round it in 3 dimensions. If you were anywhere safe in its line of sight all the matter in front of you would obscure your view of the hole itself, in fact probably making it a bright light as it all heats up on its way to oblivion.
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Sunday 15th February 2015 20:52 GMT Bronek Kozicki
Re: Can't be right
Yes but that would only happen if blackhole was actually surrounded by matter to devour. It is indeed expected that some blackholes are in the center of galaxies (or other dense objects) where there is matter in proximity which would create messy ring around the blackhole (accretion disk caused by drag from the rotation of blackhole), but it is also expected that there will be some blackholes with very little matter left around to be sucked. These will look just as pictured.
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Tuesday 17th February 2015 12:41 GMT T. McGrath
One of the worst Sci-Fi movies ever made.
They were so worried about what the black hole looks like, that nobody bothered to consider what would happen to the rest of the solar system if you park a 3+ solar mass black hole right next to the planet Saturn.
According to the movie - nothing happens. Thus destroying any hope of obtaining "plausible deniability" and making the rest of the movie completely unwatchable.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
