Black Hole Gravitational Lensing Simulation

This project simulates gravitational lensing caused by a black hole, demonstrating how its intense gravity distorts light from a background image. Using ray tracing techniques, it applies Einstein's General Relativity principles to create realistic visual effects.

Code Structure

• black-hole-image/: Contains code that generates a still image of a black hole, illustrating gravitational lensing effects.
• black-hole-mass/: Simulates a black hole with increasing mass over time, creating the illusion that the observer is moving closer to it.
• black-hole-position/: Simulates a moving black hole, showing how gravitational lensing dynamically changes as its position shifts.

How It Works

• A space background image is loaded.
• The Schwarzschild metric and the deflection formula:
  $\alpha = \frac{4GM}{c^2 r}$
  are used to compute light bending.
• The distorted light paths are mapped to a new image using scipy.ndimage.map_coordinates.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• NumPy, Matplotlib, SciPy
• FFmpeg (for animations, if needed)

Installation

pip install numpy matplotlib scipy  

Usage

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/HugoGW/Black-Hole-Simulation.git  
cd Black-Hole-Simulation  

2. Add a background image (space_background.jpg, space_background_2.jpg or space_background_3.jpg).
3. Run the script in the desired directory.

Author

Created by Hugo Alexandre (@HugoGW). Feel free to contribute or reach out for improvements!