Research
BlackHoles.fyi draws black holes from the physics of how light and gas behave near them. It is made by Stef and Oren Lewandowski, a father and son in the UK. Most parts of its pictures rest on published work by physicists and astronomers, and on the star maps and catalogues they made.
Each area below has a page listing its parts and their papers. Each part also says how real it is: worked out from the physics, following a model another team published, chosen for the picture where nothing more exact is known or practical, or partly worked out and partly chosen.
The shadow and the photon ring
The dark patch at the centre of a black hole picture and the thin bright ring round it, with the papers behind each.
2 parts, 3 sources
The sky behind the hole
The stars and the Milky Way behind each black hole, their light bent by its gravity, and the catalogues and maps they come from.
2 parts, 44 sources
The glowing disc
The disc of gas circling a black hole: its shape, its temperature, its thickness, the threads in it and why one side is brighter.
5 parts, 17 sources
The parts of a black hole
The point of no return, the ring where light can circle, the closest orbit gas can hold and the centre, with a black hole cut in half to show them.
2 parts, 8 sources
Light paths and falling objects
The routes light takes past a black hole on its way to you, and how an object dropped into one looks from far away.
2 parts, 8 sources
Research notes
Working notes on single parts of the picture: what we found while drawing them, and where the research is still unclear.