Curved Spacetime — 3D
the rubber-sheet view: a black hole and an orbiting star denting space
What you're seeing
- The sheet is a 2-D slice of space, embedded in 3-D so curvature shows as
depth. The dip a mass makes is gravity — orbits are paths through this
curved geometry. (Hugely exaggerated for visibility.)
- The black hole digs a deep, narrow throat; the black sphere at the bottom is
the event horizon, wrapped by a glowing photon ring.
- The orange star is not a black hole, but it has mass too — watch it drag its
own shallow dent across the sheet as it orbits. The black hole wobbles as
well: both bodies orbit their common centre of mass.
- The orbit traces a rosette — perihelion precession, the same
general-relativity effect measured in Mercury's orbit.
- The travelling undulations are gravitational waves: ripples in spacetime
radiated by the pair, strongest when the orbit is tight and fast.
- Click the sheet to relocate the star. If it crosses the horizon it is
swallowed, and a new star appears.
drag — orbit · scroll — zoom · click — move the star · space — pause
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