Event Horizon
a black hole with the physics left in

What you see on every new tab

Event Horizon shows a black hole whose gravity bends the light you see. The shadow sits right of centre, seen almost edge-on from 8 degrees above the disc through a very narrow lens. Because every ray curves around the hole, the back of the disc appears twice: as a bright arch over the shadow and a thinner arc beneath it, while the near side cuts straight across the middle.

The disc is torn into thin, hot filaments rather than smooth bands, and a Milky Way band curls into arcs where it passes behind the hole.

• Wrapped disc: The far side of the disc shows over and under the shadow. The lower arc is dimmer because you are seeing the disc's underside.
• Shredded filaments: Long thin strands with black gaps between them, sparks riding along them, and white-hot plunging material inside the inner edge, which laps every 40 seconds.
• Beaming: The left side of the disc burns white-hot and the right side a dimmer orange.
• Einstein ring: Stars and galaxy dust near the shadow stretch into arcs and slowly swirl around it; the sky further out stays still.
• A small planet: A dark planet with a thin warm crescent, lit by the disc, crosses the foreground on a tilted 320-second orbit.
• Slow drift: The camera wanders a degree or so and moves in and out on a 150-second cycle.

A fragment shader follows each pixel's ray through the hole's Schwarzschild gravity in up to 200 steps, finer near the shadow, recording every disc crossing. A blur pass adds bloom, and stars and galaxy are drawn on top at full resolution.

What it reacts to

• Mouse: The cursor tilts the camera a fraction of a degree. Through such a narrow lens that visibly slides the disc and shadow, while the stars stay pinned.
• Music: With music sync on, bass brightens the whole disc and treble makes the brighter stars flicker. The mids are not used.
• Beat: A hard kick drops a hot spot onto the near side of the disc, which is dragged round with the orbit and dissolves.
• Night: No painted night: after dusk on Auto, or in Night mode, a dark veil dims the page by up to 60 percent.

Free or Pro?Pro

Ambient New Tab is free to install, with five free themes. Event Horizon 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 Event Horizon full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.

How to get it

1. Add Ambient New Tab to Chrome.
2. Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
3. Pick Event Horizon. Done.

Questions

How is Event Horizon different from Black Hole?

Black Hole copies a painting: straight light rays, a blue-white jet and a camera high above the disc. Event Horizon bends every ray, so the disc wraps over and under the shadow, the sky smears into a ring, one side of the disc is beamed brighter, and a small planet passes in front. It has no jet.

Is Event Horizon 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.

How is the light bending worked out?

For each pixel the shader sends a ray from the camera and steps it through the hole's gravity using the Schwarzschild bending term, with steps that shrink near the shadow. A ray that falls in stays black, and each crossing of the disc plane adds disc colour. The stars use a matching point-lens formula.

Does the ray tracing adjust on a slower graphics chip?

Yes. It traces rays at 80 percent of the screen's resolution and lets the bloom hide the softness. If frames keep taking longer than 40 milliseconds, it lowers that resolution in steps and never raises it again in that tab, so the picture softens instead of stuttering. It also runs on WebGL1.

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.

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