Echoes of a black hole

Simulations of the light echoes off of the accretion disk around a maximally spinning (“Kerr”) black hole. The white circle indicates the location of the black hole event horizon, and the echoes of light are color-coded by their observed frequency, which can be distorted by Doppler shifts and by the strong gravity of the black hole. The simulation has been sonified such that lower frequency light corresponds to a lower pitch sound. (Learn more: ) Sound computed by Kyle Keane and Erin Kara, MIT. Animation computed by Michal Dovciak, ASU CAS Watch more videos from MIT: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an independent, coeducational, privately endowed university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our mission is to advance knowledge; to educate students in science, engineering, technology, humanities and social sciences; and to tackle the most pres