The Science of Interstellar
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Endurance floating in space before explosion, 180
Endurance in front of Gargantua’s accretion disk, 99
Endurance in front of the wormhole, 145
explosion on the Endurance, 181
Endurance floating in space after explosion, 181
Endurance nearly captured by Gargantua, 243
voyage of:
trip from Earth to Saturn with slingshot around Mars, 68, 74, 117
trip through wormhole, 139, 144–145, 272
parking orbit around Gargantua, 62, 63–64, 67, 69, 72, 161, 176
trip from parking orbit to Mann’s planet, 174–176
Endurance (continued)
explosion above Mann’s planet, 179, 181–182, 181
pried away from Mann’s planet and down toward critical orbit, 237–238; see also critical orbit
near capture by Gargantua, 242–244
on critical orbit, 247
launch toward Edmunds’ planet, 239, 244–245
design to withstand tidal gravity, 180–181
energy, types of:
chemical, 89
nuclear, 89, 118–119
gravitational, 68, 89–90, 120–123
event horizon:
defined, 22
created by the warping of time, 47–48
gravity ultrastrong near horizon, 162
shape of and depiction of, 49, 49, 57, 231, 232, 233, 249
circumference proportional to black hole’s mass, 58–59
radius defined, 59, 295
shape of space near, 62–63
gas carries magnetic field onto, 91–92
magnetic field threads horizon, 91–92
in volcano analogy, 241
in Interstellar:
Romilly hopes for information to leak out of, 172–173
Cooper plunges through horizon: what Cooper and Brand see, 247–248
Cooper’s view upward from inside horizon, 248, 250
Cooper’s view downward from inside horizon, 251
Andrew Hamilton’s black-hole flight simulator, for journey into event horizon, 288
see also black hole; Gargantua, Interstellar’s black hole
exotic matter—holding a wormhole open, 131, 132, 135, 138, 218, 283; see also wormholes
fields, see bulk fields in Interstellar; electric fields; force lines; gravitational field and field lines; magnetic fields; tendex lines; tidal gravity
fifth dimension (out-back), 40, 188, 188, 191, 194–196, 200, 213, 216, 220, 269, 272, 284, 286, 295; see also bulk
Flatland:
Edwin Abbott’s satirical novella, 189
animated film, 285
motivates bulk beings, 190–192
force lines, 22–26, 41–44, 90, 151–152, 165, 194–199, 209–211, 214–216, 221; see also bulk fields in Interstellar; electric fields; gravitational field and field lines, magnetic fields; tendex lines; tidal gravity
fourth dimension, time as, 40, 185–186, 188, 284
galaxies, 18–20
Andromeda, 19, 70
Milky Way, 19, 52–53, 279
Coma cluster of galaxies, 204
Abel 2218 cluster of galaxies, 205
Gargantua’s galaxy, 31, 75, 85, 98, 144, 166
black holes in cores of, 22, 52, 70
quasars in cores of, 93
governed by Newtonian laws, 29
gravitational pulls of galaxies on each other, 206
orbits of galaxies around each other, 204–205
Gargantua, Interstellar’s black hole:
location in our universe, 200
images of, 31, 98, 99, 169, 243, 250
slowing of time near, 36, 162–163
space whirl around, 97, 163–164, 175
tidal gravity of, 163–166, 238
mass and spin deduced from properties of Miller’s planet, 59–62
reduction of spin for visualization, 97–98
anatomy of (horizon, and movie orbits), 62–66
shell of fire, 64–66
singularities inside, 230–234; see also singularities inside black holes
constructing images of, 30–31, 75–87, 96–99; see also accretion disks around black holes; gravitational lensing by black holes
accretion disk, 94–99; see also accretion disks around black holes
lack of jet, 94; see also jets from black holes
appearance of, from Miller’s planet, 168–169, 169
appearance of, from Mann’s planet, 175
appearance of, from inside event horizon, 250
typical orbits around, 72, 101
lethality of environment, 100–102
vibrations of, 170–173
volcano analogy, 239–240; see also critical orbit
see also black holes; event horizon; Miller’s planet
geometrodynamics, 154–155
global positioning system, see GPS
GOCE satellite (ESA), 216–217, 217
GPS, 36–37, 37, 208
GRACE satellite (NASA), 210
gravitational anomalies, historical examples:
anomalous precession of Mercury’s orbit, 34, 202–204
anomalous orbits of galaxies around each other—dark matter, 204–206
anomalous acceleration of universe’s expansion—dark energy, 206–207
gravitational anomalies in Interstellar:
origin of the idea for, 5
in Cooper’s landing a Ranger, 208
in GPS system failure, 208
harvesters gone haywire, 208
in the fall of dust, 208, 208
in tidal gravity (my extrapolation), 209–211, 209
in the strength of the Earth’s gravity, 216–217
in Gargantua’s vibrations (my extrapolation), 170–173
Professor Brand’s interest in, 212
harnessing of, to lift colonies off Earth, 32, 212, 221, 225, 273–275, 290
generated by bulk fields (my extrapolation), 32–33, 213–218, 296
described by Professor Brand’s equation, 220–222
quantum gravity laws, as key to, 225
gravitational anomalies on Earth:
searches for, 32, 207
could arise from fields controlling gravity’s strength, 296
Brans-Dicke theory predicts, 296
gravitational field and field lines, 25–26; see also inverse square law for gravity; tendex lines; tidal gravity
gravitational lensing:
defined, 30
by dark matter, observed, 205
gravitational lensing by black holes, 31, 50, 50, 75, 79
shadow’s edge and ring of fire, 76–78
by nonspinning black hole, 79–80
by fast-spinning black hole, 80–86
Einstein rings, 79–82
star-streaming patterns as camera moves around hole, 76, 78–82, 85–86
computation of, for Interstellar, 83–86
lensing of one black hole by another black hole, 86–87
gravitational lensing by wormholes, 141, 142–145, 143, 145; see also wormhole in Interstellar; wormholes
gravitational slingshots:
NASA’s, in the solar system, 72–74, 117
references on, 279–280
Endurance around Mars, 74
necessary for spacecraft navigation near Gargantua, 67–68
IMBH needed, 69–71
for Ranger’s trip from Endurance to Miller’s planet, 68–70
for Endurance’s trip to Mann’s planet, 176
for Endurance’s trip to Edmunds’ planet, 237
imaged by gravitational lensing, 86–87
in a black-hole binary system, for intergalactic travel, 120–123
video game based on, 280, 295
gravitational waves:
what they are, 146, 151–153
tendex lines, 151–153
role in my extrapolation of Interstellar—discovering the wormhole, 146–150
gravitational waveforms, 147–148, 147, 155
from neutron star spiraling into black hole, 148–149
from merging black holes, 151–152, 151
from a mountain on a spinning neutron star, 149–150
from a spinning, deformed black hole, 152
from the big-bang birth of our universe, 155–157
gravity gradiometer, 209–211, 210
Halley’s comet, 71, 175
Hollywood, culture of, 1–14, 277
IMBH (intermediate-mass black hole), 69–71, 86–87, 86, 176
Interstellar:
genesis of, 1–9
my science guidelines for, 4, 8, 9, 43
visual effects in, 10–12, 30–31, 75–87, 94–99, 138–145
movie sets for, 13–14
see also Interstellar, scenes in
Interstellar, scenes in:
opening scene, Cooper trying to land a Ranger, 208
life on Earth (“Cooper’s world”), 106–107, 107
blight in crops on Earth, 31, 105–106, 111, 112, 114; see also blight in crops
gravitational anomalies on Earth:
in opening scene of movie, 208
harvesters gone haywire, falling books and dust, 208
in Murph’s bedroom, 202, 208–209, 211
see also gravitational anomalies in Interstellar
Cooper at NASA, 133, 273
Endurance’s trip from Earth to Saturn, 68, 74, 117
Romilly explains wormholes, 136
the wormhole, 145, 208
Endurance’s trip through the wormhole, 144
Ranger’s trip from Endurance to Miller’s planet, 68–70, 168, 169
crew on Miller’s planet, 58–59, 161, 164–165, 165
crew’s return to Endurance and to Romilly, 170
choice of where to go after Miller’s planet, 100
Endurance’s trip to Mann’s planet, 176
Ranger scraping ice clouds when landing on Mann’s planet, 177
crew on Mann’s planet, 178–179
Dr. Mann describing Professor’s struggle to understand gravity, 229
Romilly urging Cooper to seek information from Gargantua’s singularities, 234
scenes back on Earth:
the Professor and Murph in the Professor’s office, 213, 221
the Professor dying, 222
Endurance’s explosion above Mann’s planet, 181–182, 181
Endurance’s plunge and rescue near Gargantua’s critical orbit, 237–244
Cooper and TARS plunging into Gargantua, 234, 242–244, 247–251
Endurance’s launch off critical orbit toward Mann’s planet, 244–245
Cooper rescued by the tesseract, 251–252
Cooper in tesseract, communicating backward in time with young Murph, 255–261, 265–266, 270–271, 297
Cooper touching Brand across the fifth dimension, 193, 272
Cooper in the space colony, 274–275
Cooper sets out in search of Brand, 275
interstellar travel, 115–123, 282
with twenty-first-century technology, 117
with far-future technology, 117–123
via thermonuclear fusion, 118–119
via laser beam and light sail, 119–120
via gravitational slingshots, 120–123
via wormholes and other space warps, 123, 282
references on, 282
inverse square law for gravity, 26, 26, 27, 34, 194–196, 198–199, 202–204, 216, 219, 274, 292, 295; see also bulk, confining gravity in
Io (moon of Jupiter), 168
jets from black holes:
visually impressive to astronomers, 87
in the quasar 3C273, 88–89, 89
powered by whirling magnetic fields, 91–92
missing from Gargantua, 94
astrophysicists’ simulations of, 280–281
Kip Thorne (me):
photos of, 6, 9, 11, 213, 221
roles in LIGO, 151, 154, 224
roles in Interstellar, 1–14
roles in computer simulations of warped spacetime, 154
discovery of tendex lines, 41
maximum spin of a black hole, 61
the Blandford-Znajek mechanism to power black-hole jets, 92
wormhole research, 2
time-travel research, 268
bet with Hawking about naked singularities, 227–229
law of time warps, Einstein’s, see time warps, Einstein’s law of
laws of physics, 27–34, 278
shape and control our universe, 27
Newtonian laws, 27–30; see also inverse square law for gravity
Einstein’s relativistic laws, 28–32; see also warped spacetime
Einstein’s formulation of, 37–38, 203–204
Einstein’s law of time warps, see time warps, Einstein’s law of
same predictions as Newtonian laws when gravity weak and speeds small, 43
extension into five spacetime dimensions, 200, 220, 269, 286
quantum laws, 28–30, 32, 34
nature of, 223–225
their primacy over Newtonian and relativistic laws, 223–225
discard fluctuations to recover Newtonian and relativistic laws, 224
references on, 287
quantum gravity laws (tera almost incognita), 29–30, 32
and superstring theory, 187–188, 284
their nature encoded in singularities inside black holes, 225–227
references on, 287
power of multiple viewpoints on laws of physics, 44
revolutions that upend established laws, 34, 275
power that mastery of the laws gives to humans, 275
LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory):
how it works, 152–153
the LIGO international collaboration, 153
see also gravitational waves
magnetic fields, 22-25
bar magnet and field lines, 22–23, 23
Earth’s, and Aurora Borealis, 23–25, 25
neutron star’s, 25, 30
accretion disk’s, 90–92
power a black hole’s jets, 91–92
magnetic levitation, 23, 23
confined to our brane, 192, 215, 296
Mann’s planet:
orbit of, 174–175, 175, 298
lack of a sun, 175
ice clouds, 176–177
geological data—signs of life, 177–179
Milky Way galaxy, 19, 52–53, 279
Miller’s planet:
used to infer properties of Gargantua, 58–62, 292
orbit of, 62–63, 62, 161–162
image of, above Gargantua’s disk, 98
slowing of time on, 59–61, 163
rotation of, 163, 165–166
rocking of, 165–167
Gargantua’s tidal gravity acting on, 58, 163
Gargantua’s whirl of space near, 163–164
giant water waves on, 164–166, 165
past history of, 166–168
appearance of
Gargantua from, 168–169, 169
scenes in Interstellar, 58–59, 161, 164–165, 165
neutron stars:
born through implosion of a star (supernova), 206
masses and circumferences, 22, 22
magnetic fields, 25, 25, 30
jets from, 25, 25
torn apart by black holes, 148–149
as pulsars, 25, 30
slingshot off, in Interstellar, 68–70
torn apart by black holes, 146–149
Newtonian laws of physics, see laws of physics, Newtonian laws
Nolan, Christopher:
foreword to this book, vii
collaboration with his brother, Jonathan, 4, 8, 262
negotiations to rewrite and direct Interstellar, 7, 8, 233
Kip’s interactions with, 8–10, 59, 69–70, 151, 189, 213, 246, 249 , 250, 256, 264
knowledge and intuition about science, 8–9, 189
commitment to science accuracy, vii, 8–9, 83, 94–96, 182
some science choices and ideas, 9
gravitational slingshots, 69–70
slowing of time on Miller’s planet, 59, 163
water waves on Miller’s planet, 164–166
spin of Gargantua for visualizations, 76, 97–98
anemic accretion disk, 94
size of Gargantua on sky, 63, 168–169
accident is the first building block of evolution, 100
wormhole’s gravitational pull, 139
wormhole’s handles, 139–140, 144
remove gravitational waves from Interstellar, 150–151
explosion in space, 182
bulk beings as descendants of humans, 193
number of dimensions for the bulk, 196
Endurance’s near capture by Gargantua, 252
bulk beings save Cooper from singularity, 247
which singularity, 249
what it looks like inside a black hole, 250
rule set for time travel, 263
complexified tesseract, 252–253, 256–261, 264–266
moving forward and backward in our universe’s time by moving through the bulk, 261, 271
science compromises to make film great, 61–62, 63–64, 97–98, 144–145, 168–169, 196
science compromises to make film accessible to mass audience, 69–70, 76, 150–151, 242
Kip’s overall view on his science compromises, 9
use of sets instead of computer graphics, 13–14
communicating rule sets to audience, 262
oxygen cycle, 281
pathogens, 108–111, 113
planets of our solar system, 20–21, 21, 71, 71
Professor Brand’s equation, 200–201, 212–222; see also blackboards, Professor Brand’s