Black Hole & Wormhole Gallery

Every image here was produced by the ray-tracing code developed in the Spacetime Simulations chapters: light is traced backwards from a camera through curved spacetime to find which part of the sky it came from. Click through to see how each one was made, or make your own black hole image.

Black holes

The Milky Way panorama before and after a simulated black hole bends its light into an Einstein ring
The Milky Way before (top) and after (bottom) placing a black hole in front of it. Made with the black hole simulator.
Ray-traced Schwarzschild black hole bending the Milky Way into an Einstein ring with fainter inner rings
A Schwarzschild black hole (M = 2.5) lensing the Milky Way: the Einstein ring, the shadow and fainter inner images. Chapter 4.
Diagram of light from directly behind a black hole bending around both sides to reach a pinhole camera, forming an Einstein ring
Why an Einstein ring forms: light from directly behind the black hole bends around every side equally. Chapter 4.
Plot of photon paths approaching a black hole at different heights, some captured and some deflected
Photon paths at different heights: those inside the critical height are captured, those outside are deflected. Chapter 4.

Wormholes

Three wormholes of increasing length with their embedding diagrams and ray-traced images showing more images of Saturn as length grows
Three wormholes of increasing length, and what a camera near each mouth sees. Longer tunnels give more, smaller images. Chapter 6. Saturn image: DNEG.
Wormhole embedding diagrams with small and large lensing width above the images each one produces
Small vs large lensing width: the wider wormhole bends more light and shows extra images. Chapter 6. Saturn image: DNEG.
Embedding diagram of the three-parameter wormhole showing its throat radius, length and lensing width
The three-parameter wormhole designed for Interstellar: throat radius, length and lensing width. Chapter 5.
Embedding diagram of the Ellis wormhole with its throat radius marked
The Ellis wormhole, the simplest wormhole, with a single parameter: its throat radius. Chapter 5.
Embedding diagram of a wormhole with four light rays circling the throat different numbers of times
Four light rays circling the wormhole's throat different numbers of times, each one producing a separate image. Chapter 6.
Embedding diagram of a wormhole with two light rays bending around its exterior to the same star
Two light paths around the wormhole's exterior reaching the same star: why lensing makes multiple images. Chapter 6.

Milky Way images are derived from the ESO panorama, credit ESO/S. Brunier (eso0932a).