It is an important moment for science and more generally for humanity, now we know what a Black Hole is like: yes, we are talking about the gigantic whirlpool of matter that attracts everything with its force of gravity. The “snapshot of the century” is the work of the Event Horizon Telescope and depicts the blurred image of a red ring made of gas that stands out in the darkness.
But how did we imagine the Black Hole before we saw it in the picture?
Here are some examples of how the world of art, cinema and music have chosen to represent this fascinating subject:
Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
I, like many others, immediately remembered the famous 90’s cult song by Soundgarden, Black Hole Sun. The band’s Twitter account has reconfigured the 1994 album “Superunknown”, which not only included the hit “Black hole sun”, but also had a cover that has many points in common with the image of the Event Horizon, in other words: “Looks oddly familiar”.
Interstellar
One cannot fail to mention Interstellar, the 2014 movie directed by Christopher Nolan, whose plot is based on space-time dilation. The director used the help of astrophysicist Kip Thorne to hypothesize the appearance of the Black Hole through complex CGI rendering software.
Treehouse of Horror XXIII – The Simpsons
In the list there are even them, the Simpsons of Matt Groening, in particular, we are talking about the special series Treehouse of Horror XXIII that occurs in every season (except the first) on the occasion of the Halloween party. In the Treehouse of Horror XXIII, season number 24, we also find the Black Hole.
SomeWhere at Sagittarius A – Daniel Chiesa
Even the history of art is not without attempts to represent the Black Hole, an example is the painting SomeWhere at Sagittarius A by Daniel Chiesa, which describes it as a colorful tornado.
The Black Hole (1979)
In ’79 I wasn’t born yet, but I grew up with the Disney classics: The black hole is, in fact, Disney’s answer to the first movie from the Star Wars saga. The film also won two Oscar nominations the same year for Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects.
