3 November 2018 | NewScientist | 27Help, I’m in a black hole!
A GLORIOUS simulation lets visitors experience
what it might be like to be sucked into a black hole,
but without becoming human spaghetti.
The Distortions in Spacetime simulation was
created by Marshmallow Laser Feast. The aim,
says Barney Steel from the design studio, is
“to take people out of their bodies and put them
in a space where they feel like they’re floating”.
The installation’s 10-square-metre room
feels like deep space thanks to its completely
mirrored surfaces. The only light source is a
panoramic screen, so when this is black, the
room becomes deeply dark.
Images on the screen then take visitors on a
journey into a black hole. Approaching the event
horizon, shapes distort and colours intensify.
Extreme lensing effects then transport viewers
on a psychedelic ride towards a big squeeze.
The simulation was commissioned by the
Manchester Science Festival in the UK, where
the installation recently sucked in its first victims.
It was created with advice from Matthew Allen,
an astrophysicist at Cardiff University, UK. Steel
hopes to arrange more showings in the UK and
elsewhere soon. Liz Else
Photographer
Barney Steel
Marshmallow Laser Feast
DREW FORSYTH/MANCHESTER SCIENCE FESTIVAL