Falling into a black hole (Realistic Ultra HD 360 VR movie) [4K]

On smartphones this video is best viewed using the youtube app. Try google cardboard on your smartphone with a VR headset for the most immersive experience (smartphone with gyro sensor required). For desktop computers try viewing in Google Chrome browser or Firefox.

If you're in a hurry, jump forward to 2:00 where it gets really interesting.

Science note: this is a real physics calculation (not simulation or rendering) I did of what we would actually see if we were unfortunate enough to fall into a black hole, from far away all the way up to the event horizon! Each frame is rendered at a resolution of 8K and the video plays at 60fps. Calculations are performed using my own general relativistic ray tracing and radiative transfer computer code, 'BHOSS' (Younsi et al. 2017), i.e., solving the equations of motion of light/photons (null geodesics) for a given spacetime, in this case a spinning black hole (Kerr).

For now there are no Doppler or gravitational redshifting effects for the sake of clarity. I've omitted an accretion disk and proper radiative transport of light as it distracts from the gravitational lensing of the starlight and the black hole's shadow. Including an accretion disk or even a torus calculated from a proper general relativistic magnetohydrodynamical computer simulation of gas falling onto a black hole is also possible and I may do this in the future.

In this movie the black hole is spinning rapidly (almost at the maximum possible rate). The starfield is taken from real observational data. The movie starts one thousand gravitational radii away from the black hole and ends at the event horizon, where eventually all light focuses into a single point and vanishes. Try looking around as you approach, or you'll miss it!

I made this VR movie to promote the "Einstein Inside" exhibition touring Germany, where it was first shown in November and December at the Goethe University of Frankfurt. Copyright: Ziri Younsi.

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Movie produced from calculations utilising my general-relativistic radiation transfer code BHOSS, e.g., Ziri Younsi et al. 2012, 2016, 2020:

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[ZiriYounsi]

Wow, 10M views!!! ☺I never expected this when publishing this video in 2016. Thank you so much for all of your support and fantastic comments, and please keep them coming!
I'm really inspired to make a new VR movie now, with a lot more physics included this time: feel free to send your suggestions!

[skymox]

You didn’t show the part where I transform into spaghetti

[cinemaclips]

Big thanks for the cameraman who throw himself into the black hole to get us this footage

[shuhratkessikbayev]

Looking back as the camera was being consumed by the black hole was terrifying, just watching space become distorted and twisted while you see both ends of the black hole close in like a mouth made me feel a feeling of fear I didn't know existed. Props to the cameraman who threw himself into a black hole to capture this for us

[patrickstar]

The scariest part was when it got so big I could see myself

[milkiekittie]

R.I.P to whoever filmed this for our viewing pleasure 😔

[vonjt]

*"Move device to explore video"*

Me: No, no I don't think I will

[LykKel]

This made me experience a level of fear unknown to me and the last 45 seconds are terrifying. Your looking at the stars and suddenly EVERYTHING GETS SMALLER. The stars start drifting away then you look behind you and see the darkest void in existence. "They are so massive that not even light can escape their gravity. They tear through everything in their path. They are BLACK HOLES."

[shakila-r]

The camera man is still alive because he's the main character

[unaidossantos]

This is fake. Everybody knows that all there is inside a black hole is an infinite ammount of bookshelves

[aai]

2:37 I was looking away from the black hole and when I looked back, it was the biggest "HOLY SHIT" moment of the day.

[kittentea]

For some reason I can't stop watching this video over and over. The universe is truly immense and we are nothing compared to what's out there. I've already watched tons and tons of videos about black holes but thanks to you I can get an idea of how it actually feels to fall into one

[irsyal]

I believe 97% of those watching are not using VR

[Jacketchipss]

* is 4 am *

My brain: “yo let’s go fall into a black hole”

[lxverdant]

This is what anxiety before a math test feels like

[_Percent_For_The_Big_Guy]

Thank you for this, that was wild! I'm low-key obsessed with black holes, and I have always wondered what it'd be like, besides painful and slightly horrifying, to fall into one. I just wish that we could know exactly what happens inside of the black hole...

[BananaKyat]

The scariest part of this, is looking away at the other stars, seemingly just drifting through space, then you turn around and see the massive black void.

[milodonmoyer]

Have fallen into a black hole before. Can confirm that this is EXTREMELY realistic.

[axerium]

Mom: honey go to sleep!
Me: let me fall into a black hole real quick

[unholycrucifilth]

The fact that you're going so slow towards a black hole waiting to be sucked up is just scary.