It is said that the gravitational pull of black holes are so much that it even sucks up light. Black holes are dark and nothing can escape their gravity. Maybe that’s why black holes have been attracting our curiosity since they were discovered first. Well, we can keep talking about black holes and it would never end, as there’s so much to black holes except just theories. So, lets get to know about some of the interactive black hole simulator websites to get you a bit closer to them; not literally.
Well, there are 3 black hole simulators mentioned in this list. All of these are pretty different from each other. One of them is pretty basic and just simulates a black hole around random space. Other two are informative black hole simulator websites which provide interactive black hole environment. While one takes you to a journey to various black holes and conduct experiments, the other lets you observe time and satellite behavior around interactive black hole.
So, let us checkout these websites one by one to know what is a black hole and all about them. We will begin with the simplest one.
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Interstellar
Interstellar is an open source online project with a pretty basic and simple black hole simulator. See that black sphere in the above screenshot? That’s the black hole. The simulator lets you look around the black hole from all around and from various distance. The graphics are pretty realistic, but there’s no information about the black hole.
With your mouse and keyboard, you can navigate around the black hole. This will let you observe how light bends around a black hole. Moreover, the graphics will also keep you engaged with the black hole.
There are 3 graphic resolution modes, low, medium, and high. You can also hide the text and other options to enjoy the interactive black hole simulation.
That’s pretty much about this web application.
HubbleSite: Black Holes
Black Holes from HubbleSite is an exciting black hole simulator that you will love to use if you are interested in astronomy. The tool lets you find various black holes in a sky map and gives you information about them.
It does not ends here. It takes you to a journey to the black holes. When you reach a black hole, it answers various commonly asked questions along and also lets you carry out various experiments. The experiments let you throw a clock in black hole, orbit around it, find mass of black hole, fall into black hole, and carry out other black hole simulation.
Once you have completed your journey towards one black hole, you can begin the journey to another one.
Apart from black hole simulator, a black hole encyclopedia is also available on this website. This will help you expand your knowledge of black holes.
CK-12 (Black Hole)
CK-12 is a science simulation website, where you will find a black hole simulator named Black Hole. This interactive black hole simulator may be a little less exciting than the above mentioned website, but will help you gain some practical knowledge about black holes.
As you open this tool, you will be introduced to black holes in a short animated video. Here, you will find what will happen to you if you fall into a black hole, how will you appear to others, and how will you age. Along with this, you will also find out how the theory of black holes came into existence, that is the theory of general relativity. If you are well informed about black holes, you can skip this step and move to the black hole simulation part.
As displayed in the top screenshot of CK-12, you can simulate time relativity for various black hole parameters. If you want, you can also change the time simulation for black hole to satellite probe simulation.
The time simulation actually shows how time will run near a black hole with respect to normal time. The probe simulation shows how radio signals will work around black holes.
For both time and probe simulations, you can change various parameters. You can change the position of clock or probe in Kms from the black hole. Frequency parameter can only be changed for probe for its operating frequency. Black hole mass can also be changed from 1 solar mass to 8 solar masses.
For the probe, the output frequency for variations of parameters are displayed. This is pretty much what you can do with this interactive black hole simulator.
Closing Words
Its almost impossible to observe a black hole from earth unless you got your hands on some very powerful telescope. The only option we have is looking at their pictures and of course these black hole simulators. These not only let you carry out experiments but also provide valuable astronomical information.
