Despite much of the stereotype that the gaming industry is an outlet for violence and adult themes, titles such as Minecraft go against such pigeonholing. Given that it's one of the most laid back video games out there, its entire philosophy is built on the idea of exploration and creativity and is the reason why it's one of the most successful IPs in recent history. Alongside that, it has millions of talented individuals who are always letting their imaginations run loose, and sometimes they reflect what's going in the world of real science.
Uploading a number of images to the Minecraft subreddit a few days ago, user SrMustard decided to celebrate a recent historical moment of discovery. Specifically, they've managed to recreate Sagittarius A*, pronounced A-star and also known as Sgr A*, which is a supermassive black hole that sits in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. On May 12, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released the first ever photograph of the black hole and, evidently, the Minecraft player wanted to reflect this in their own creation.
It's a pretty spectacular build, with some of the wider shots showing the glow of the black hole, with distinctive swirls spinning around it. Naturally, many in the Reddit thread have paid compliments to SrMustard for their efforts. Of course, given that the real Sgr A* is about 26 million kilometers across, the recreation is not to scale, but is still a very impressive facsimile of this magnificent image. While the mod GalactiCraft implements space exploration in Minecraft, the cosmos is something that is seldom delved into within the game, which is a bit of a shame. Having said that, the base game itself is already massive as it is. Additional images of SrMustard's Minecraft black hole can be viewed on Reddit.
As well as a display of sheer talent that emanates from the community, SrMustard's work also shows just how near-endless creativity is within the game. With Mojang due to launch The Wild update for Minecraft soon, it seems as though the game is just going to keep getting bigger, with more ideas being added all the time.
For this reason, it's hardly surprising that it's a video game that players can sink hundreds of hours into. There is so much to see and do, as well as an almost infinite number of things to create, that it seems as though the game will go on forever. The fact that SrMustard has managed to show appreciation for a real scientific achievement shows how the real world can easily bleed into the blocky, low-res game.
Minecraft is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: PCGamesN