Big Science Art: Openverse's black hole spins visualization on NATURE journal

HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a report about Openverse originally published by WSJ.China.

Humanity has always been curious about the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy. "A black hole is the most ideal and simplest celestial body to verify the correctness of the theory of general relativity, it occupies a significant position in theoretical physics." Cui Yuzhu explained why the scientific community has persistently studied the black hole problem during the century since the theory's emergence.

Since enrolling as a doctoral student in 2017, Cui Yuzhu's research direction has been firmly anchored on the M87 black hole. In the same year, she participated in the Event Horizon Telescope Project (EHT) to work on data and picture processing. In addition, she is also responsible for processing and analyzing data from the East Asia VLBI Network (EAVN) composed of telescopes in China, South Korea, and Japan. Via the Event Horizon Telescope observations, Cui Yuzhu can obtain information on micro-scales and slightly larger scales, including observations of black hole scales and jet structures.

Cui Yuzhu found the M87 black hole jet shows a periodic swing of about 11 years, and the swing amplitude is approximately 10°. "Demonstrating this breakthrough result via visualization was not smooth, I was learning 3D software and planned to make this cover myself." Cui Yuzhu said with a smile. At this time, Cui Yuzhu encountered the Openverse founder, former senior IP lawyer Jo Xu (Xu Wen), and co-founder digital designer Budda. Based on the simple schematic diagram and detailed text description hand-drawn by Cui Yuzhu, the Openverse team used AI-empowered patented technology to quickly complete the rendering from sketch to flat 2D to 3D stereoscopic drawing. The most significant difficulty in the process was the alignment of ideas between designers and scientists due to widely differing knowledge backgrounds. The digital designer Budda said: "Scientists have very high requirements for the accuracy of model performance, including which angles should be selected to show the precession of the accretion disk, and how much it swings, all of which must be able to correspond to the observation data. This scientific research result visualization has a strong visual impact, like a graphic artwork. This is where Openverse shows its talents as a soul painter."

This image released with the discovery of the spin of black hole M87 has received enthusiastic attention from all over the world. " As Smart IP Maker, what we are doing is not simply to use technology to do the 'transformation of scientific research results' or 'cross-border cooperation in science and art', but to use the power of IP to start a sustainable value cycle, "Budda said, in his view, scientific discoveries themselves have great IP potential, just as the famous astronomer Carl Sagan launched world-renowned popular science works 'Cosmos,' which are not only timeless but also have incredibly high commercial value.

After the visual realization of this accretion disk precession model picture, Dr. Cui Yuzhu, who has made intellectual contributions, can use it permanently and free of charge in the academic and popular science fields. Openverse focuses on this black hole IP's development, management, and commercialization, "such as making IP into a digital art collectible with part of the revenue donated to scientific research institutions including Zhijiang Laboratory," Budda said, "This mechanism is similar to that of donors or sponsors supporting potential artists and researchers in the 15th century Renaissance period." At the same time as the interview was being conducted, the 10,000 digital collectible of the "M87 Black Hole Jet Accretion Disk Precession 3D Model" was sold out within 1 second by Openverse on the Whale Explorer platform.

When we asked Openverse how the "Make Science Popular" slogan came up, Budda answered: "The European Renaissance Movement inspired it." The Openverse team looked back at that period of human civilization, which shows that art and science were not as distinct as they are today but were integrated and intertwined. This inspired the Openverse team to initiate the concept of "Big Science and Art." After accumulating strength for decades, Chinese science and technology is experiencing an explosion of results. Budda said: 'We jokingly say to the scientists, if you save time on drawing pictures, you may win the Nobel Prize earlier, and Openverse hopes to become the name behind the most Nobel laureates."

Finally, we asked Cui Yuzhu: What is the significance of the research on black holes to ordinary people? She smiled: "Today, people will ask about the significance of studying black holes. More than 50 years ago, about the significance of exploring Mars. More than 60 years ago, about the significance of lunar exploration. More than 480 years ago, about the significance of 'heliocentric theory.' Many years ago, people would ask about the meaning of 'geocentrism,' just like hundreds of thousands of years ago, people would ask about the importance of 'fire'... so if you look at it with too much pragmatism, it is difficult to get the expected answers in a short period time. The progress of scientific research subtly changes the way we look at the world around us, consolidating the steps of human thinking and scientific and technological progress, and our world view and even the universe."

In the vastness of the universe, mysterious black holes have never been the limits of human exploration. The fusion of art and science will gradually expand human cognitive boundaries into the lives of every ordinary person, one step at a time.