Black Hole a supermassive black hole, painted in light
A wide gold-and-orange accretion disc streaked with orbiting material, a white-hot inner ring hugging the event horizon, and a blue-white jet twisting up from the pole. In the style of the classic NASA artist's concept, fully procedural.
Free to install. Black Hole unlocks with Pro: $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever.
What you see on every new tab
Black Hole shows a supermassive black hole from 20 degrees above its accretion disc, framed like the well-known NASA/JPL-Caltech artist's painting. The near half of the disc passes in front of the horizon, so the black ball rises out of the disc only halfway, edged by a razor-thin gold-white rim.
A blue-white jet climbs from the pole, leaning slightly left, against a dusty red-brown sky with a tilted galaxy band in the top-left corner. Light travels in straight lines here, as in the painting.
Orbiting streaks: Gold and orange streaks circle the hole at Keplerian speed: the inner edge laps once a minute and the outer rings much more slowly, so the pattern shears into long arcs.
Rings and gaps: Dark lanes and bright ringlets cross the disc and drift slowly, and one side of the disc is drawn brighter, as the painter did.
White-hot inner zone: White-hot haze fills the gap between the horizon and the disc's inner edge, inside a warm, hazy glow.
The jet: Twisting filaments stream up a cone about eleven horizon radii long, white at the base and bluer higher up, with a small bright glow where it leaves the pole.
The sky: Two layers of pin-sharp stars stay fixed behind the disc, and the galaxy band has dark dust lanes and a bright core.
One fragment shader ray-casts every pixel each frame: it tests the ray against the horizon sphere and the flat disc, then takes up to 40 samples through the jet's cone. Every texture comes from noise functions, not from images.
What it reacts to
Mouse: The cursor swings the camera up to about three degrees around the hole; it eases back when the cursor leaves the page.
Music: With music sync on, bass brightens the disc and its rim, mids brighten the jet, and treble makes the brighter stars flicker.
Beat: A hard kick drops a glowing hot spot onto the near side of the disc. It is carried round with the orbit, trailing a short smear, and fades within a few seconds.
Night: There is no painted night. After dusk on Auto, or in Night mode, a dark veil up to 60 percent deep settles over it.
Free or Pro?Pro
Ambient New Tab is free to install, with five free themes. Black Hole is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Black Hole full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.
Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
Pick Black Hole. Done.
Black Hole on a 1280×800 New Tab page.
Questions
Why doesn't Black Hole bend the light like Event Horizon?
Because it copies the NASA/JPL-Caltech painting, not the physics. Rays travel in straight lines, so the far side of the disc does not wrap over the top of the hole, and neither side is Doppler-brightened. If you want the lensed look from the film Interstellar, pick Event Horizon, which traces curved light paths.
Is Black Hole free?
It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released.
Why is only half of the black hole visible?
The camera sits 20 degrees above the disc, so the near half of the disc crosses in front of the horizon and hides its lower part. What remains is a black dome with a thin gold-white rim along its top edge, the same framing the artist used.
Does the disc pattern cycle back to the start?
No. Each ring of the disc turns at its own Keplerian speed, the inner edge once every 60 seconds and the outer parts much more slowly, and the streak texture also changes on its own clock. The streaks keep shearing into new arcs instead of running a short loop.
Does it work on my phone?
No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.
