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
Did a double-take, there: thought the title said, “Filming A-holes.” There’s already porn for that.
Beatle reference.
You get a Starr for that illusion!
Jeffery Hodges
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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.
:)
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]
“Gravitation”, yeah the book has a certain pull to it.