Details

The small red circle shows the current position of the orbiting companion. For equatorial orbits, the ergosphere and the outer event horizon merge. Their location is represented by the white circle.

Only certain combinations of initial values produce bound orbits; if the values are in the unbound regime, the sliders will turn red.

To see unbound or plunging orbits, manually enter values outside of the bound range into the slider boxes.

Click the play button to watch the tiny companion orbit continuously. A reset button in the upper right corner returns the sliders to default values.

Near the unstable circular orbits, numeric error will eventually cause the companion to fall into the black hole.

Reference: J. Levin and G. Perez-Giz, "A Periodic Table for Black Hole Orbits," Phys. Rev. D, 77, 103005, 2008.