Archontia Emmanouilidi

The Physics behind the movie ‘Interstellar’

Supervisor: Ulrik Uggerhøj

Date student colloquium: 02.03.2017 (2nd of March) 14:15

Abstract

Interstellar is a 2014 epic science fiction film by Christopher Nolan. (Warning: spoiler alert!) In the film, humans can no longer live on Earth and have to ensure their survival by interstellar travel.

During this journey different astrophysical objects and physical concepts are presented, and what makes the movie extremely interesting is that theoretical physicist Kip Thorne was the scientific consultant for the film who laid down two guidelines: "First, that nothing would violate established physical laws. Second, that all the wild speculations... would spring from science and not from the fertile mind of a screenwriter."

Given those guidelines, how well did Hollywood actually present physics this time?