Andrew Hamilton
Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
University of Colorado, Boulder
Fellow, JILA

Black Hole Flight Simulation

I will show interactive simulations of what it would look like to fall into a black hole. Non-rotating charged black holes, and rotating black holes, have inner as well as outer horizons. These inner horizons are Cauchy horizons that are believed to be unstable, and through which it is impossible to pass. Nevertheless the trajectories of ideal infallers pass through these horizons, and it is fun to witness visually what happens, and subsequently to experience flying out through a white hole, a time-reversed black hole. The interactive software is being written in the context of a $50M initiative by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to establish a new Space Science center, scheduled to open in May 2003.