Filming A Hole

On my bookshelf at home is a massive tome called Gravitation, by the great astrophysicists Charles Misner, John Wheeler and Kip Thorne. I picked it up at a used-book sale about twenty years ago, at a time when I was reading everything I could get my hands on about cosmology and relativistic physics. It was obviously “above my pay grade” mathematically, but the authors were rock-stars to me, and I knew it was the Bible of this field — so when I had the chance to grab a copy for a paltry few bucks, I snatched it. (You can get a copy for yourself at Amazon, but it’ll cost you.)

Now, with thanks to our reader and commenter Henry (who is a physicist himself), I’ve learned that Kip Thorne is producing a movie about a visit to a black hole, and has spent a good deal of effort calculating, with mathematical rigor, just what a black hole would look like if we were able to photograph it at close range. Henry has posted a trailer at his blog; you can have a look here.

6 Comments

  1. Did a double-take, there: thought the title said, “Filming A-holes.” There’s already porn for that.

    Posted October 25, 2014 at 5:27 am | Permalink
  2. Malcolm says

    Beatle reference.

    Posted October 25, 2014 at 2:38 pm | Permalink
  3. You get a Starr for that illusion!

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    Posted October 25, 2014 at 5:26 pm | Permalink
  4. Thanx for the h/t, Malcolm.

    You don’t want to miss “Interstellar” (hopefully on IMAX, if possible). Imagine the special-effects graphics!

    Don’t get too close to the screen, however. Remember, the event horizon is unforgiving.

    :)

    Posted October 26, 2014 at 3:28 pm | Permalink
  5. HJH,

    Here’s another “hole” illusion:

    “The Great Cornholio”

    [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/Cornholio.jpg/300px-Cornholio.jpg[/img]

    Posted October 26, 2014 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
  6. Jan says

    “Gravitation”, yeah the book has a certain pull to it.

    Posted November 14, 2014 at 12:28 pm | Permalink

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