INTERSTELLAR BLACKHOLE SOFTWARE

(The EHT is an international group of astronomers who are linking together a worldwide array of radio telescopes to observe black holes at event-horizon scales. What’s interesting is how much the black hole in Interstellar looks like the models that the scientists of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) have generated to study the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*. With Thorne’s guidance, apparently Nolan decided that a massive black hole (called Gargantua) spinning at nearly the speed of light would suffice. But black holes behaving in various ways could, in theory, open up wormholes. Under normal circumstances, if you fall into a black hole it will crush you out of existence, not fling you to a distant corner of the universe. Wormholes, also known as Einstein-Rosen bridges, are not the same as black holes. The only way to get there is through a wormhole–a spacetime tunnel linking two distant regions of the universe. It would take way too many human lifetimes to travel to our nearest possible second homes. We’ve known the premise of the film for a long time: Earth is a disaster, the human race is on the verge of extinction, and mankind must find a new home. We recently consulted with the physicist on the manipulation of the flow of time for another Christopher Nolan film, the critically acclaimed thriller ‘Tenet’, released to cinemas earlier this year.Wired has a fun piece about physicist and black-hole guru Kip Thorne’s work on the film Interstellar, which comes out November 7. In his talk ‘The Warped Side of the Universe’ at Cardiff University in 2019, Thorne described how the final result of the collaboration with DNEG was an almost perfect representation of a black hole.ĭNEG’s work with Kip Thorne hasn’t stopped there. Kip Thorne has also spoken on the accuracy of the depiction to audiences. © Max Alexander, StarmusĪ comparison of DNEG’s imagery with the image captured using the Event Horizon Telescope was first shared at a talk given by Oliver James at the Starmus Festival in 2019. Oliver James at the 2019 Starmus Festival.

If these movies help connect audiences with science, then we’re doing something right, so we’re delighted to share this video.” We use science as a source of inspiration when creating movies. I wanted to demonstrate how this difference is linked to the observer’s viewpoint. The EHT image is roughly circular, while our images have a distinctive line crossing the black disc. Oliver James, DNEG Chief Scientist, said: “I was astounded by the M87 images from the Event Horizon Telescope team, but there was a slight difference in the shape of their image and the one we created for Interstellar.

However, it wasn’t until 2019, when an image of a black hole was finally captured, that the scientific accuracy of the visuals was recognised. The work contributed to ‘Interstellar’ winning the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects in 2015 and led to the publication of two scientific papers by the DNEG team. It allowed DNEG’s artists to explore this warped space and create the iconic images seen in the movie.

INTERSTELLAR BLACKHOLE SOFTWARE

The custom software designed by DNEG’s research and development team created a new way of visualising the gravitational lensing of a black hole. For public and media enquiries regarding the video please contact the work on ‘Interstellar’, DNEG’s team, led by Chief Scientist Oliver James and VFX Supervisor Paul Franklin, collaborated with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne to create a simulation of a black hole that not only supported the film’s aesthetic and storytelling, but which was rooted in Thorne’s calculations.Īt the time the film was being made, scientists were yet to capture an image of a black hole – areas of the universe where gravity is so powerful that not even light waves can escape.

DNEG has published a new video demonstrating how the Oscar-winning visuals created for Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film ‘Interstellar’ correspond to the first image of an actual black hole, observed last year in the M87 galaxy using The Event Horizon Telescope.

Interstellar blackhole