Relativity visualized
Space Time Travel
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Relativity visualized
Space Time Travel |
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A few movies show various objects (black holes, neutron stars, a gravitational collapse) in a Schwarzschild spacetime. This serves to illustrate the effect of gravitational light deflection on the visual appearance of these objects.
The movies show various objects in a Schwarzschild spacetime. This serves to illustrate the effect of gravitational light deflection on the visual appearance of these objects.
They do not show real astronomical objects, sizes and colors are chosen so that the effects of light deflection are clearly visible.
In the descriptions, the parameters are given in geometric units in dimensionless form. If the unit length is 2 km, the values are typical for a neutron star. Unit mass then corresponds to 1.5 solar masses.
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Movie: Neutron star
Neutron star with radius 4. The mass is increased from M = 0 to M = 1.78. A mass of 1.78 corresponds to a ratio of radius to Schwarzschild radius of 9/8. Theory predicts that a smaller ratio is not possible for a stable star. MPEG1 320×240 (1.2 MB), MPEG1 640×480 (10.9 MB) |
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Movie: Orbiting a massless sphere
A massless companion orbits a massless central star. |
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Movie: Orbiting a neutron star
A massless companion orbits a neutron star. |
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Movie: Ring around a black hole
In the center of a ring (inner radius 8, outer radius 12, height 1) a black hole forms with increasing mass. MPEG1 320×240 (1.3 MB), MPEG1 640×480 (10.0 MB) |
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Movie: Massless sphere with accretion column
The position of the accretion column is different from that in the previous movie. MPEG1 320×240 (669 kB), MPEG1 640×480 (6.0 MB) |
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Movie: Neutron star with accretion column
The position of the accretion column is different from that in the previous movie. MPEG1 320×240 (917 kB), MPEG1 640×480 (12.8 MB) |
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Movie: Gravitational collapse of a neutron star
Gravitational collapse of a neutron star with mass M = 1 seen by a distant observer. MPEG1 320×240 (782 kB), MPEG1 640×480 (7.1 MB) |
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Movie: Gravitational collapse of a neutron star
Gravitational collapse of a neutron star with mass M = 1 seen by a freely falling observer. Initially the neutron star has radius 4 M, the observer is located at 6 M. The neutron star surface and the observer start falling at the same Schwarzschild time. MPEG1 320×240 (1.1 MB), MPEG1 640×480 (12.0 MB) |
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