In 1979, French cosmologist Jean-Pierre Luminet created the first computer visualization of a black hole based on Einstein’s equations of general relativity.
Previous to this, scientists understood the concept of black holes theoretically but did not have a way to visually represent one. Luminet pioneered using computers to simulate images.
His visualization showed a small ring of light encircling an otherwise black circle, representing light bending around the extreme gravity of a black hole.
Luminet’s work helped establish the scientific understanding of how black holes would appear based on their gravitational lensing and warping of spacetime.
It predicted what the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy might look like, decades before the actual first photograph was taken by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019.
The photograph closely matched Luminet’s 1979 computer simulation, validating the accuracy of Einstein’s relativity equations in describing black hole phenomena.
Luminet’s pioneering use of computers to visualize general relativity concepts opened the door to improved simulations that helped scientists directly observe and image black holes.
Source: snopes
