History Main / SwirlyEnergyThingy

-->'''Cat:''' Swirly thing alert!!!

Most [[UnrealisticBlackHole Black Holes]] will take this form in media, never mind that you shouldn't be able to ''see'' a black hole under most circumstances... well, usually. Some black holes have what is called an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disc accretion disc]] that looks quite a bit like such a thing -- it's matter just outside the event horizon that manages to go into orbit around it before falling in, because centrifugal force balances out the massive gravity experienced so close to the event horizon. Nonetheless, the black hole will look like this in media even if there's no apparent source of the matter in the first place.

* The PreCrisis {{Superman}} story "Superman's Secret Afterlife!" had the hero being caught by a LifeEnergy sucking creature called a Helix in space, that looked like a miniature galaxy. It trapped him in [[LotusEaterMachine an illusion of his possible future life]] (with a little help from the PhantomZone Villains). Superman destroys it, appropriately enough, by [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome spinning it towards a nova]].

* Inter-dimensional portals in BobAndGeorge tend to look like this. Or, in George's words, "it's big and shiny and looks like what an extra-dimensional portal should".

* ''DawnOfWar 2'' and its expansions actually showed Imperial ships jumping in and out of the warp, whose jump rifts basically fit into this. Bonus points for also making it look like the ships were being ''pulled'' in by giant lightning tentacles. Which, [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace knowing the nature of the Warp]], is entirely possible to be what was actually happening.

* The first two seasons of ''{{Eureka}}'' have this calling it the "Artifact" which may or may not have been the thing that caused both the Big Bang AND intelligence...

* ''TheBlackHole'' is one of several films that features a ''funnel-shaped'', rather than flat, accretion disc around the event horizon.[[labelnote:*]]You won't actually see anything funnel-shaped if you look at a black hole, as the "funnel" doesn't point anywhere in three-dimensional space. A black hole looks like a sphere. (Though you can, in a sense, see the "dimpling" of space by the distortion of the starlight near the edge of the hole...[[MindScrew auuuuggggh forget it]], just [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole look at the picture in Wikipedia.]]) Once you pass through the black hole's event horizon, space and time swap places. The all-crushing singularity at the center of the black hole, which was previously "down," is now "the future." Specifically, ''your'' future. The only way to avoid the singularity now is to start going backward in time. Black holes may thus be considered the end of the universe that has got here a little early.[[/labelnote]]

** Heck the entire ''galaxy'' is a really big swirly energy thingy made of stars, planets, planetoids, nebulae and other things, while it's more solid than most thingies it does have plenty of stars to make it glow.

* A major plot point right through ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. In fact, one of these kicked off the plot in the first place. Farscape wormholes usually just send you through space, but can do time as well. John has the distinction of being pretty much the only person who can predict when and where they will open which paints a huge target on his back.
* The first two seasons of ''{{Eureka}}'' have this calling it the "Artifact" which may or may not have been the thing that caused both the big bang AND intelligence...

* As the [[Quotes/SwirlyEnergyThingy quotes page]] suggests, ''Series/RedDwarf'' encounters quite a few of these. Among them are a "time hole" (which goes into a dimension where time runs backward) a "white hole" (which ''spits out'' everything that a black hole pulls in), and a dimensional portal.

* ''TheBlackHole'' is one of several films that features a ''funnel-shaped'', rather than flat, accretion disc around the event horizon.[[labelnote:*]]You won't actually see anything funnel-shaped if you look at a black hole, as the "funnel" doesn't point anywhere in three-dimensional space. A black hole looks like a sphere. (Though you can, in a sense, see the "dimpling" of space by the distortion of the starlight near the edge of hole...[[MindScrew auuuuggggh forget it]], just [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole look at the picture in Wikipedia.]]) Once you pass through the black hole's event horizon, space and time swap places. The all-crushing singularity at the center of the black hole, which was previously "down," is now "the future." Specifically, ''your'' future. The only way to avoid the singularity now is to start going backward in time. Black holes may thus be considered the end of the universe that has got here a little early.[[/labelnote]]

* The "time rip" in Creator/StephenKing's "The Langoliers" (''Literature/FourPastMidnight'') is this.

* The "time rip" in Creator/StephenKing's "The Langoliers" (''FourPastMidnight'') is this.

** Taken [[UpToEleven up to eleventybillion]] by quasars. They have so much swirly, energy, and thingy in such a small area that they appear to be point sources (like stars, hence the original acronym QSR or quasi-stellar radio source). The accretion disk in this case is typically about the size of the solar system around a black hole billions of times more massive than the Sun, but has the brightness and energy output of a ''galaxy''. Oh, and about a Sun's worth of stuff falls in each year to fuel it.

[[folder:TableTopGames]]
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', there exists a light-years across swirly energy thingy called the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Eye of Terror]]. Don't be put off too much by the name; it's just [[NegativeSpaceWedgie where hell itself has spewed into reality]]. There are a number of others, although the Eye of Terror is the largest: the Maelstrom, the Maw, the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath... you get the idea. In the Fifth Edition rulebook, during its description of the Orks, the book gives up a (not-to-scale) map of a [[KillEmAll WAAAAGH!]] from beginning to end. One of the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie topographical anomalies]] on the map is literally titled [[FunetikAksent "Da Big Swirly Fing"]]
[[/folder]]