Double negative gravitational renderer - Research Paper Example

ARTICLE INFORMATION “Interstellar technology throws light on spinning black holes”, Institute of Physics Publishing, 02/16 http www.astronomy.com/news/2015/02/interstellar-technology-throws-light-on-spinning-black-holes RESEARCH SUMMARY This paper looks into the new light set on knowledge about the nature of black holes by a new computer code, Double Negative Gravitational Renderer (DNGR), developed by a London-based team of 30 visual effects artists from visual effects company Double Negative in collaboration with Caltech theoretical physicist Kip Thorne that simulated never seen before graphical images of what a would be seen if a camera was near a spinning black hole.

The simulation reveals stunning images of the spinning black hole surrounded by over a dozen over-lapping images of distant individual stars and also a thin bright plane of light that is an image of the galaxy that the black hole exists in. The simulation was done as part of the making of Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning movie Interstellar. The images were a result of the spinning black hole which was dragging bits of the universe along with it and causing the caustics around it to be stretched severally around the spinning black hole: These multiple images are caused by the black hole dragging space into a whirling motion and stretching the caustics around itself many times.

It is the first time that the effects of caustics have been computed for a camera near a black hole, and the resulting images give some idea of what a person would see if they were orbiting around a hole. RESEARCH RESULTS AND SUMMARY To create the simulation of the spinning black hole, DNGR maps the paths of millions of light beams along their respective cross-sections (that are evolving in real time) as they come into the black holes warped space-time continuum. DNGR created clear and very smooth images of a wormhole and with a glowing accretion disk that had parts that swung over and under the wormhole’s shadow and even infront of the shadow’s equator thus resulting to an image of a split shadow.

This phenomena was a result of gravitational lensing, which is a process where light beams from several locations on the disk or even from distant stars are bent before arrival at the simulated camera; thus resulting to the mind-blowing surreal images of the celestial body. These images are of great value in various fields. Astrophysicists like Kip Thorne find sanctuary in the smooth images generated by DNGR as the accuracy of data in the profession is highly critical. The chief scientist at Double Negative, Oliver James, explained that DNGR was mature and was even used to generate the images seen in the movie Interstellar.

He also noted that they realized that DNGR was a tool that could very easily be adopted for scientific research. The image generated by the code was also a spectacle in the entertainment sector as DNGR was behind the iconic images in the movie Interstellar, as the code enabled the tracing of the distorted paths and shapes of light beams rather than tracing the path of individual light rays by incorporating Einstein’s equations. RECOMMENDATIONS I highly recommend provision of supportive funds for this research.

I feel that the positive impact it puts in the world of science and many other relevant fields ripples far in terms of technical enhancements. The diverse power of DNGR opens a new visual experience to astrology which is by-far much more accurate than previous methods of image generation. This gives new insights on the nature of the universe and celestial bodies in it. The images generated by the DNGR can also be a powerful tool in the education sector as a scientific research tool. Students can now run through realistic simulation of several celestial phenomena with cutting-edge accuracy.

The value of this is unparalleled as it gives a hands-on experience of what it would actually look like if the viewer was at the real place and time of the occurrence of the subject study.