Black hole flight simulator

From the new "New Scientist" blog comes this very cool looking simulation.

Black hole flight simulator: "
Sci-fi writers have long imagined what being swallowed by a black hole might be like – now physics, supercomputers and computer gaming graphics have combined in an attempt to create a realistic simulation. And it’s a pretty wild ride.

The 'Black Hole Flight Simulator'was created by Andrew Hamilton, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado, for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The 23-minute show contains segments that required 90 hours of supercomputer calculation for each on-screen second. You can see the trailer here (and look out for the guy in the canoe).

Entering a black hole might sound like a certain death sentence, but not so if it has five dimensions. If you don’t fancy the gamble, astronomers can now detect the event horizon of black holes, as well as witness their brutal birth and messy feeding. (Image: Denver Museum of Nature and Science)"