"We found that warping space around the black hole also warps the accretion disk," special effects head Paul Franklin said. "So rather than looking like Saturn's rings around a black sphere, the light creates this extraordinary halo." Thorne quickly realised that the model generated by Nolan's team is as scientifically accurate as it gets. Forget artistic licence; this is what black holes actually look like. "This is our observational data," Thorne explained. "That's the way nature behaves. Period."