Let's Build a Black Hole

Today we will be discussing the science behind the film Interstellar. Interstellar takes place on a failing planet, Earth. After years of crop failures and the final generation of humans born on Earth, it is painfully clear that mankind has to expand onto other planets. At first glance, a viewer might shrug this movie off as just another misinformed bit of media to cash in on the "space epic" genre, but there is a surprising amount of factual information packed into the 169 minute film. First off, the dusts and fungi that are shown to be ravaging the Earth's crops are actually based on real-life events and substances. These helped to keep that part of the story in check. Next, Executive Producer and and Science Adviser, Kip Thorne, made sure to keep the film as scientifically accurate as possible. He studied the science of black holes using equations from Eienstine's Theories of Relativity and his research was reflected in the recreation of a black hole in the film. The black hole in the film used the mathematical data found by Thorne to represent how light from a star swirls around a black hole multiple times before ultimately being sucked into its massive gravitational pull. A model of a black hole was made but still, aesthetics and appeal had to be taken into consideration. After all, it is still a movie. Kip Thorne and Christopher Nolan examined the recreated black hole and concluded that, as long as the black hole wasn't viewed at too many different angles, it would look just fine. Back to the science behind black holes now. Nolan used the trope that getting too close to a black hole would cause weird things to happen to time, causing time to essentially slow down or stop for the unfortunate astronauts who managed to venture too close. This idea furthers the conflict of the heart-wrenching separation between one of the astronauts and his daughter. Finally, the topic of Interstellar space travel was also scientifically backed. Since logically we can't move faster than the speed of light, nor can we survive the thousands of years it would take to reach distant planets, the film depicts an intergalactic "short cut", worm holes. Worm holes are hypothetical "tunnels" through space and time that were originally predicted by Einstein. Human beings are still many years away from actually traveling through a worm hole, but modern scientists can theorize how to make a worm hole big enough to send a message or even a starship.

I thought that the article was very fascinating and I'm glad that movies are starting to use this level of scientific research when writing/designing their movies. I learned quite a bit about the appearance of a black hole and that actual teams of scientists help to create better films for our viewing pleasure. How do we know so much about black holes? Other aspiring filmmakers can take inspiration from this article and use science to benefit their films as well