Gallery

Wormhole

Corvin Zahn, March 14, 2008

Description:

Wormholes are traversable connections between two universes or between two distant regions of the same universe.

The wormhole shown here connects the place in front of the physical institutes of Tübingen university with the sand dunes near Boulogne sur Mer in the north of France (panorama of the dunes: Philippe E. Hurbain).

Author: Corvin Zahn

Institute: Institute of Physics, Universität Hildesheim

More information: Flight through a Wormhole

License: This image is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany" (abbreviated "cc-by-sa/2.0/de/").

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Cubes moving at 90% of the speed of light

Ute Kraus, September 19, 2005

Description: A few cubes are set up in a row (bottom). A second row of cubes moves along the first row at 90% of the speed of light (top, motion is from left to right). All cubes, whether moving or at rest, have the same orientation: The face with the "3" is in front, the "4" is on the rear side. The fact that we can see the rear sides of the moving cubes is a consequence of the finiteness of the speed of light.

Author: Ute Kraus

Institute: Institute of Physics, Universität Hildesheim

More information: Sights that Einstein could not yet see

License: This image is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany" (abbreviated "cc-by-sa/2.0/de/").

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Black Hole in front of the Milky Way

Ute Kraus, July 14, 2005

Description: A Black Hole of ten solar masses as seen from a distance of 600km with the Milky Way in the background (horizontal camera opening angle: 90°)

Author: Ute Kraus (background Milky Way panorama: Axel Mellinger)

Institute: Institute of Physics, Universität Hildesheim

More information: Step by Step into a Black Hole

License: This image is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany" (abbreviated "cc-by-sa/2.0/de/").

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High resolution image (2560 × 2048, 1172 kB)

Moving at 90% of the speed of light

Ute Kraus, January 28, 2003

Description: View of a scene while in high speed motion: The image is a snapshot taken while approaching the gate at 90% of the speed of light. (The gate is a simplified model of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.)

Author: Ute Kraus

Institute: Institute of Physics, Universität Hildesheim

More information: Visual observations in high speed flight

License: This image is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany" (abbreviated "cc-by-sa/2.0/de/").

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High resolution image (1536 × 1152, 99 kB)

Rolling Wheels

Corvin Zahn, April 25, 2002

Description: In his book "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" George Gamow describes the adventures of Mr. Tompkins in a fictitious world, in which the speed of light is only 30km/h. Motivated by the scene of Mr. Tompkins riding a bike along the street, this picture show what a relativistically rolling wheel "really" looks like.
The red wheel in the background is at rest, the green one is in stationary rotation (a point on the rim moves with a speed of 0.93c) and the blue one in the foreground is rolling at a speed of 0.93c from left to the right through the scene.
The shadows are due to a light source which illuminates the scene from a great distance from behind and above.

Author: Corvin Zahn

Institute: Institute of Physics, Universität Hildesheim

More information: Rolling Wheels

License: This image is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany" (abbreviated "cc-by-sa/2.0/de/").

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High resolution image (1024 × 768, 89kB)

Light deflection near a neutron star

Corvin Zahn, October 9, 1990

Description: Neutron star. Due to relativistic light deflection more than half of the surface is visible.
Neutron star mass: 1, neutron star radius: 4, All values are in natural units (c, G = 1). Patches on the chequered surface: 30 degrees by 30 degrees.

Author: Corvin Zahn

Institute: Institute of Physics, Universität Hildesheim

More information: Four-dimensional ray traycing in a curved spacetime

License: This image is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany" (abbreviated "cc-by-sa/2.0/de/").

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Light deflection near a neutron star

Corvin Zahn, October 9, 1990

Description: A neutron star (blue) is orbited by a massless companion star (red). When the companion star moves behind the neutron star, it appears distorted because of relativistic light deflection.
Geometry and colours of this scene are chosen to clearly illustrate the effects of light deflection. They are not realistic from an astrophysical point of view because, so close to a neutron star, the companion star would not be stable.
neutron star mass: 1, neutron star radius: 4, companion star radius: 8, radius of the orbit: 20. All values are in natural units (c, G = 1).

Author: Corvin Zahn

Institute: Institute of Physics, Universität Hildesheim

More information: Four-dimensional ray traycing in a curved spacetime

License: This image is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany" (abbreviated "cc-by-sa/2.0/de/").

Please acknowledge as in the figure caption.

High resolution image (1024 × 768, 7598 B)