Stellar-mass black holes are the most common type in the universe, and they have small event horizons that create intense tidal forces. In a new simulation, researchers used NASA’s Discover supercomputer at the Climate Simulation Center to study what would happen if someone got too close to a supermassive black hole, like the one at the center of our galaxy. The simulation is based on data from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Event Horizon Telescope’s observation of the Milky Way black hole.
The video shows an accretion disk of glowing gas around a supermassive black hole, similar to what is observed at the center of our galaxy. As you descend through this disk, light particles swirl around you until you reach the event horizon – the point of no return where even light cannot escape. Falling into a supermassive black hole would still result in the spaghetti effect due to intense gravitational forces, but it would be different from falling into a stellar-mass black hole.
The simulation reveals that gravity near a supermassive black hole destroys an observer within seconds and compresses matter to reach the singularity – the center of the black hole – almost instantaneously after crossing the event horizon. Despite their massive size, these black holes are relatively calmer than their stellar-mass counterparts. This new simulation provides valuable insights into these mysterious objects and sheds light on how gravity behaves near them.
