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Have you ever wondered what happens if you were to fall into a <keyword id="20345779" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="black-hole" source="keywords">black hole</keyword>? Thanks to cutting-edge visualisations produced on a <keyword id="19935155" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASA" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="NASA" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="NASA">NASA</keyword> supercomputer, this mind-bending experience is now within reach. <keyword id="20165213" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="astrophysicist" source="keywords">Astrophysicist</keyword> Jeremy Schnittman, alongside fellow scientist Brian Powell, has crafted immersive simulations that take viewers on a perilous voyage toward the <keyword id="20435027" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="event-horizon" source="keywords">event horizon</keyword> — the point of no return — of a supermassive black hole. Utilising the immense computational power of the <keyword id="21564837" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Discover-supercomputer" source="keywords">Discover supercomputer</keyword> at NASA's Center for Climate Simulation, Schnittman and Powell have unlocked a window into the enigmatic world of black holes. These simulations, which generated a staggering 10 terabytes of data, offer multiple perspectives, from what would happen if we fell into the black hole itself, to the view of an observer narrowly missing the gravity giant. The journey begins with a distant view of the black hole, its <keyword id="20511098" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gravitational-pull" source="keywords">gravitational pull</keyword> quickly dominating the scene. As the camera hurtles toward the abyss, the surrounding space-time distorts, bending light and warping the familiar constellations into unrecognisable shapes. Along the way, viewers witness the surreal dance of an accretion disk — a swirling mass of hot gas — and photon rings, hauntingly beautiful structures born from light orbiting the black hole. <div type="Youtube" id="chhcwk4-esM" title="NASA Simulation’s Plunge Into a Black Hole: Explained" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/chhcwk4-esM/mqdefault.jpg"><url><![CDATA[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chhcwk4-esM]]></url></div> But as the camera approaches the event horizon, time itself seems to slow, echoing the eerie stillness of this cosmic boundary. This is where the laws of physics, as we understand them, begin to unravel. The phenomenon known as <keyword id="21564836" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="spaghettification" source="keywords">spaghettification</keyword> awaits those unfortunate enough to cross the threshold — a relentless tidal force that stretches and distorts everything in its grasp into noodle-like structures. <div type="Youtube" id="dGEIsnBRWGs" title="360 Video: NASA Simulation Shows a Flight Around a Black Hole" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dGEIsnBRWGs/mqdefault.jpg"><url><![CDATA[https://youtu.be/dGEIsnBRWGs?si=CVAkSszgt9AzRBS3]]></url></div> For the daring astronaut who dares to skirt the edge of oblivion, time itself becomes a plaything. The effects of gravitational <keyword id="21564835" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="time-dilation" source="keywords">time dilation</keyword> mean that while the spacefarer may experience a 6-hour-round trip, her comrades faraway would end up being 36 minutes younger upon her returning. And if the black hole were to possess a rapid rotation, as depicted in the film “Interstellar," the temporal disparity would be even more extreme. In the end, whether one's fate is sealed within the inescapable grip of the singularity or they emerge unscathed, these simulations offer a tantalising glimpse into the profound mysteries of the cosmos. Through the lens of cutting-edge science and technology, we venture ever closer to understanding the true nature of these cosmic behemoths.

Here’s what falling inside a black hole would look like, according to a NASA supercomputer simulation

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory observed a <keyword id="6409890" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="black-hole">black hole</keyword> sucking in a faraway star, shredding it into thin strands of stellar material.</li><li>This process, known as "spaghettification," happens because of black holes' powerful gravitational force.</li><li>At 215 million light-years away, this spaghettification process is the closest ever observed by astronomers. </li></ul>Astronomers have captured a rarely-seen event: a flare of light caused by a black hole devouring a nearby star like spaghetti.Observed in the Eridanus constellation, about 215 million light-years away from Earth, the star's destruction is the closest such event astronomers have ever observed. "When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy, the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material," study author Thomas Wevers, a fellow at the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, Chile, said <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2018/">in a press release about the discovery.</a>This process is called a tidal disruption event – or, more colloquially, "spaghettification," a nod to the long, thin strands a star becomes as the black hole's gravity stretches it thinner and thinner. When these strands get sucked into the black hole, they release a powerful flare of energy that astronomers can detect, even from hundreds of millions of light-years away. <div type="image" title="spaghettification" height="1308" width="2628" msid="78627843" hostid="261"></div>The researchers studied the dying star over a six-month period, using tools including ESO's Very Large Telescope and its New Technology Telescope, and published their findings in <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2018/eso2018a.pdf">Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.</a><h2>Examining spaghettification in 'unprecedented detail'</h2>The research team discovered the star soon after it started getting ripped apart, and observed it through ultraviolet, optical, X-ray and radio wavelengths. The combination of the star's proximity and timing allowed the astronomers to study it in "unprecedented detail," according to the press release.Even though a spaghettifying star releases a bright energy flare, researchers have often had trouble in the past examining such flares because dust and debris obscure them. Now they know the debris comes from the spaghettification process itself."We found that, when a black hole devours a star, it can launch a powerful blast of material outwards that obstructs our view," Samantha Oates, an astronomer at the University of Birmingham and a coauthor of the study, said in the press release.In other words, as the black hole gobbles up the star, it releases energy that flings chunks of star-debris outwards. The team also estimated the size of the dying star: It was about the mass of our own Sun, which is 2×1030 kg, or about 330,000 Earths. By the end of the study period, "it lost about half of that to the monster black hole, which is over a million times more massive," Matt Nicholl, a Royal Astronomical Society research fellow at the University of Birmingham and lead author of the study, said in the press release. Going forward, the astronomers hope their detailed observations of this spaghettifying star can help future researchers demystify similar events – and in doing so, help us learn more about how black holes and matter interact.

Astronomers captured rare images of a black hole shredding a star into spaghetti-like strands and devouring it

<h1>BI Answers: What Happens When You Enter A Black Hole?</h1>
In Christopher Nolan's latest film, "Interstellar," actor Matthew McConaughey dives into a black hole. Although Nolan and the special effects team, guided by a prestigious theoretical astrophysicist, Kipp Thorne, produced one of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/interstellar-black-hole-physics-discovery-2014-11">the most scientifically accurate visuals of a black hole</a> for the film, you don't get a good sense of what McConaughey's character sees or feels as he falls toward the center, which is unfortunate because what a black hole does to the human body is really cool.
Astronomers estimate that our galaxy harbors <a href="http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/encyc_mod3_q7.html">approximately 100 million black holes</a>. If you ever entered one, you would suffer a most horrible death and when it was all over, there would be no trace, no physical evidence that you ever existed.
Prior to your terrible demise, however, you would see and feel some amazing, powerful, and downright trippy, stuff.
Like planets and stars, there are both big and small black holes. You will die regardless of what size of black hole you enter. But the time it takes you to die upon approach and what you see beforehand strongly depends on your black hole of choice.
Let's first look at the closest black hole to Earth, called V4641 Sgr for the star that orbits it. Black holes, by definition, are invisible, so astronomers usually find them by the stars and gas that orbit around them. Calculating the distance to a black hole is equally hard as finding one, but as far as we know, V4641 Sgr is <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/75723/where-is-the-nearest-black-hole/">between 1,600 and 24,000 light years away</a>, located in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.
<h2>Small But Deadly</h2>
V4641 Sgr is an example of a small black hole. It's two to three times more massive than our sun, and all that mass is confined to a space less than 4 miles across. This means the center of the black hole, called the singularity, is incredibly dense and therefore has a colossal gravitational pull, strong enough to trap light and everything else that comes too close.
This also means that as you approach the black hole, you'll see blackness blotting out light from distant stars. But that's not all you'll see. Black holes distort the space around them, which in turn, bends the path along which passing light travels. As a result, you'll begin to see some very weird stuff upon your approach. Something like this:
The outer ring is the result of gravitational lensing, when gravity bends light, distorting and magnifying what we would otherwise see in the absence of a strong gravitational force. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-image-einstein-ring-2014-11">Anything with a strong gravitational pull</a> can create gravitational lensing, including massive galaxies and galaxy clusters.
The edge of a black hole - outlining the black circle in the animation above - is called the event horizon. It is known as the point of no return, or the exit door of the universe. Whatever passes the event horizon, including you, can never return because the black hole's pull is too strong to escape, even if you're traveling at the speed of light.
However, you don't have to worry about reaching the event horizon in this case because you'll be dead long before that. Small black holes are especially lethal because they have very large tidal forces that will stretch you paper-thin before you even reach the event horizon.
<h2>Spaghettification</h2>
This stretching action is called spaghettification because you look like a very long piece of unappetizing spaghetti when the tidal forces are done with you. One example of these tidal forces that will be pulling you apart, first explained by Isaac Newton, are tides on Earth. They're caused by the gravitational interaction between the Moon and our planet.
Whichever side of Earth faces the Moon is the side that is closest and therefore feels the strongest gravitational tug compared to the opposite, farther side. The same thing happens to your body when you're nearing a black hole. Here's what spaghettification would do to a spacecraft:
Say you're fearless - after all, you're entering a black hole - and you go head-first toward the blackness. The top of your head is going to be closer to the black hole's center, called the singularity, than your feet. As a result, gravity's influence on your head will pull you toward the center of the black hole more than your feet, stretching you spaghetti-thin in the process.
Eventually, you're stretched to the point you begin to <a href="http://www.quora.com/What-happens-to-matter-when-it-enters-a-black-hole/answer/Prajwal-Samal">break down into individual atoms</a>. And it does not take an expert to tell you that this would be a most unpleasant way to die! If you try to enter a black hole, you will get spaghettified no matter what. But a small black hole is going to kill you faster than a supermassive black hole, like the one at the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
<h2>Going Supermassive</h2>
Approximately 25,000 light years from Earth, at the center of our galaxy, there is thought to be a supermassive black hole that is 4.3 million times more massive than our sun. But, if you travel the distance to this larger black hole, you'll get <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/BlackHoles/fall_in.html">close to the event horizon, and even pass it</a> while still alive and coherent. The view might make you feel a little off kilter at first but will be totally worth it:
Why can you get closer to a large black hole? It's because the event horizon is farther from the center. This means that the tidal forces at the event horizon are weaker - if the Moon were farther from Earth, we would have smaller tides for the same reason. Therefore, you would not start to get spaghettified until after you entered the black hole.
As you fell closer toward the event horizon, the gravitational force around you would grow. This means it would bend the light that reached your eyes more strongly, which is what you're seeing in the animation above. Moreover, time would tick more slowly the deeper you fell into the black hole.
From your perspective, time would tick on as usual, but from an outsider's perspective, like someone on Earth, you would age very slowly. This phenomenon is called gravitational time dilation.
As you fall closer to the event horizon, the blackness will grow, eventually covering your entire field of view. When that happens, when you see only darkness, then you'll know that you're inside of a black hole. The last opportunity to see the universe you're leaving, forever, will be directly behind you and will be a tiny point of light. After that, gravity will <a href="http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-getting-sucked-into-a-black-hole">drag you toward the singularity at the speed of light</a> and ultimately spaghettify you.
No one knows what happens beyond the event horizon, and astrophysicists suspect that the physics we understand here on Earth breaks down inside of a black hole. That means there's no scientific way to explain or understand what goes on after you exit the universe.
Physicists are working on the problem in the laboratory by creating <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/413785/acoustic-black-hole-created-in-bose-einstein-condensate/">acoustic black holes</a> - singularities that are strong enough to trap sound, but not light. The mathematics behind acoustic black holes are the same, however, which offers a good starting point to better understand what takes place inside these bizarre cosmic phenomena.
Nolan has one crazy theory, but you'll have to watch "Interstellar" to find out!
(The animations in this post are what you would see as you approached a stationary black hole. In reality, most black holes, and possibly all, are spinning. This means they would distort the space around them even more, and as you approached the event horizon you would actually start to orbit around the center, which would slightly change what you saw. But you would still feel the same tug from tidal forces and experience gravitational time dilation.)
For more incredible animations on what it's like to enter a black hole, check out this cool video.

This post is part of a continuing series that answers all of your "why" questions related to <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>. Have your own question? Email <a href="mailto:science@businessinsider.com">science@businessinsider.com</a> with the subject line "Q&amp;A"; tweet your question to <a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Science" target="_blank">@BI_Science</a>; or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderScience" target="_blank">post to our Facebook page</a>.

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Here’s what falling inside a black hole would look like, according to a NASA supercomputer simulation

Ankush Banerjee

Astronomers captured rare images of a black hole shredding a star into spaghetti-like strands and devouring it

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What Happens When You Enter A Black Hole?

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