Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists

Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists pulls visitors in to the modern search for real black holes-the most mysterious and powerful objects in the universe. Through a combination of hands-on physical models, computer-based investigations, immersive experiences, and a technology-assisted learning environment, visitors can make sense of the weird ideas behind black holes, and examine the evidence to weigh for themselves whether black holes have moved from the realm of science fiction to the status of reality.

This exhibit is included with museum admission

Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists pulls visitors in to the modern search for real black holes-the most mysterious and powerful objects in the universe. Through a combination of hands-on physical models, computer-based investigations, immersive experiences, and a technology-assisted learning environment, visitors can make sense of the weird ideas behind black holes, and examine the evidence to weigh for themselves whether black holes have moved from the realm of science fiction to the status of reality. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will be assisted by the video guidance of both professional and teen-aged "Black Hole Explorers."

Create Your Black Hole Explorer's Card (*)

At the start of the exhibition, visitors use a touch-screen computer station to choose a nickname and take a digital picture or avatar image to create their own bar-coded Black Hole Explorer's Card. Throughout the rest of the exhibit, they can use their Explorer's Card to collect discoveries and generate a personalized website that only they can access (with the PIN number on their card) to share with friends and family. The website serves as part personal diary, part observer's log, and will include data recorded by the visitor including their observations, conclusions, questions, notes, and photos they've captured of their activities within the exhibition. Once visitors are back home, their personal Black Holes web journal is also a portal to further online content related to black holes.

What's on the Horizon for Black Hole Research?

In just the last ten years, technological advances in ground-based and space-based instruments have revealed a universe apparently teeming with black holes, and in which black holes play a much greater role in the evolution of the universe than previously imagined. This component comprises a changeable graphic panel and video (updated remotely by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) that highlights a variety of modern black hole research facilities-from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The visitor's online Explorer's Journal provides an opportunity to ask featured "scientists of the month" about these new experiments.

What is a Black Hole? (*)

The strange concept of an object so massive that nothing can escape its gravity was predicted long before any real black holes were ever shown to exist. This dramatic interactive visualization lets visitors explore the extremes of gravity near massive objects and the distortions of space and time predicted by Einstein. What happens to your avatar image as it draws near a black hole?

Where are Black Holes?

Astronomers have discovered evidence of several dozen feeding black holes among the stars within our own Milky Way galaxy. This wall photo of the night sky and Milky Way shows the mapped location of many prominent black holes in our galaxy, using visitor-activated LEDs.

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