AGILEScience vs Black Hole Vision

"AGILE: from Black Holes to the Earth" AGILE is a satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) dedicated to unveiling the most exciting mysteries of our Universe. Black holes, neutron stars, stellar explosions, very far galaxies from deep space and other exotic cosmic sources emit very energetic radiation (gamma-rays) that AGILE is able to detect in orbit. Launched in 2007, the satellite is currently observing the Universe with many surprises and crucial discoveries. AGILE contributes also to the study of the Earth having detected hundreds of "terrestrial gamma-ray flashes" associated with lighnting in energetic thunderstorms. Their impact for the environment is under study. Thus, AGILE reaches the frontiers of our knowledge for both the remote cosmos and our planet Earth, a very important synergy for our society. The AGILE project is the result of the collaboration between ASI, the Italian Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). Several Italian universities participate in the program (Rome-1, Rome-2, Trieste, Pavia), as well as space companies including CGS, Oerlikon-Contraves, Thales-Alenia Space (ex Laben), Galileo Avionica, and Mipot. This APP presents an overview of the AGILE exciting results: it is a window for exploring the most energetic phenomena of our Universe. Developed by Nicolò Parmiggiani (Università di Modena e Reggio) in collaboration with INAF/IASF Bologna the AGILE App features different tabs: 1) NEWS: the most important news related to the AGILE space mission. 2) GALLERY: a collection of videos of the main discoveries, of photos of the satellite construction and launch campaign, and of maps showing the gamma-ray universe as seen by AGILE. 3) TOP: the most important scientific discoveries. 4) MORE: including the following sections: 4.1) Position: AGILE location in orbit (displayed in real-time). 4.2) ATEL/GCN: the complete list of the AGILE Astronomical Telegrams and GCN Circulars. 4.3) AT reserved section.

What would the world around you look like if you were staring at a black hole? This application places a black hole in the field of view of your iPhone’s camera and gravitationally "lenses" the resulting live video feeds just as a black hole would warp the light from surrounding stars. The resulting "Black Hole Vision" reveals interesting features of black hole lensing, including a "photon ring" of strongly lensed images around the black hole. The measurement of this photon ring will be the target of future astronomical observations from space with the Black Hole Explorer: an orbit satellite that will take the sharpest images in the history of astronomy! To learn more about BHEX, head over to https://www.blackholeexplorer.org/. The code is open source and freely available on GitHub at https://github.com/graveltr/BlackHoleVision, along with documentation that explains the underlying black hole lensing equations and how they are implemented in Black Hole Vision. The code was written at Vanderbilt University by Trevor Gravely with input from Dr. Roman Berens and Prof. Alex Lupsasca. We also acknowledge Dominic Chang for useful input and comments. This project was supported by CAREER award PHY-2340457 and grant AST-2307888 from the National Science Foundation. The lensed image of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 was generated using material produced by NASA and STScI and can be found here: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2006/10/1865-Image.html?news=true. License: This app includes a port of the GNU Scientific Library's (GSL) implementation of Jacobi elliptic functions and the elliptic integrals to Metal. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). You can view the full license and obtain a copy of the source code at: https://github.com/graveltr/BlackHoleVision.