trip to a neutron star
fake continents to show perspective
To make a direct comparison with how the sky would look to an alien coming to earth from a nearby star, the earth has been replaced with a neutron star. And to give us some orientation, the continents of our planet are traced onto the neutron star (neutron stars don't really look like earth!).

The large mass and extreme density of the neutron star warp space-time very tightly and cause some surprising optical effects.

Notice how the faraway background stars do not appear to be fixed as we travel in, but swirl around. It is not the stars themselves that are moving! It is the warped space-time near the neutron star that causes the images of the stars to dance. The star light is bent as it follows the curved path of space-time near the neutron star.

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