Black Hole Wallpaper macOS 15+ / MIT / Metal

Your desktop, bent by a black hole.

Black Hole Wallpaper is a live wallpaper for macOS. Every pixel follows a ray of light around a spinning black hole, computed in Metal on your Mac.

Download for macOS

Free and open source, MIT license. macOS 15 or later.

Still from the app, preset Gargantua: a black hole with a thin glowing disk, the far side of the disk bent up over the shadow.
Fig. 1Live in your browser: a lighter version of the app's ray tracer, preset Gargantua. Without WebGL or with reduced motion you see a still from the app.Move your pointer
Light
Ray traced, Kerr metric
GPU, all moving *
1.7 to 2.6 ms per frame
GPU, edges only *
0.12 to 0.14 ms per frame
Presets
7, plus your own

* Measured on a MacBook Air M4 at 3440 x 1440.

Real light bending, not a video loop

Most black hole wallpapers are videos. This one is computed. The app traces a ray of light for every pixel through the spacetime of a spinning (Kerr) black hole, step by step. That ray tracing produces the shadow, the thin photon ring, the far side of the disk bent up over the top, and stars smeared into arcs near the Einstein ring.

The disk starts at the innermost stable orbit and turns at Kepler speed. The side moving toward you is brighter and bluer, from Doppler beaming and gravitational redshift.

Computed
Light paths, shadow, photon ring, the bent far side of the disk, Doppler brightening, lensed stars and objects.
Artistic
The colors. A real disk would glow white to orange. The palettes are a choice, and you can change them.
Close-up from the app: the black shadow, a thin bright ring at its edge, the glowing disk wrapped around it in orange and magenta.
Fig. 2Close to the shadow: the photon ring and the disk bent around it.
A thin white ring around the black hole and its magenta disk: the image of a galaxy behind it.
Fig. 3A galaxy right behind the hole becomes a closed Einstein ring.
A ringed planet stretched into arcs around the black hole, preset Gargantua.
Fig. 4A ringed planet behind the hole, bent into a ring with a counter image.

Seven presets, then make your own

Pick one per display or one for all. Duplicate any preset and change the hole, disk, colors, nebula, stars and edges.

  • Still from the app, preset Swirl.
    5aSwirl. Magenta and orange disk in a violet nebula. The default.
  • Still from the app, preset Gargantua.
    5bGargantua. Warm, thin disk seen from the side, like the film.
  • Still from the app, preset M87* as photographed.
    5cM87* as photographed. Seen from almost straight on, like the first photo of a black hole.
  • Still from the app, preset Top View.
    5dTop View. The disk from above.
  • Still from the app, preset Ice Blue.
    5eIce Blue. Cold blue and violet.
  • Still from the app, preset Star System.
    5fStar System. Galaxies, a pulsar, an asteroid belt, a ringed planet with a moon and a comet around the hole.
  • Still from the app, preset Sci-Fi Harbor.
    5gSci-Fi Harbor. A wormhole next to the hole, a space station, a stargate and ships from four universes.

Add things. The hole bends them.

Put a galaxy right behind the hole and it becomes a closed Einstein ring. Slightly off, it splits into two arcs. A planet on an orbit dips behind the disk and comes back bent. Comet tails point away from the hole.

Still from the app: the black hole with its magenta disk, a star destroyer, a starship and a space station around it.
Fig. 6Sci-Fi Harbor on an ultrawide display: ships and a station on their orbits around the hole.
  • 01Galaxies, from spirals to quasars
  • 02Distant and nearby stars, pulsars and magnetars
  • 03A relativistic jet along the spin axis
  • 04Planets with rings, clouds and storms, and their moons
  • 05Asteroids, belts, comets and meteors
  • 06Ships and stations from many science fiction worlds, plus real spacecraft like Hubble and James Webb
  • 07A second black hole and a wormhole

Bring your own 3D model as OBJ, USDZ, USD, PLY, STL, glTF or GLB.

Ships are simple shapes built in the app as a fan tribute. Not affiliated with any studio or franchise.

Motion follows physics

  • →Bodies run on Kepler orbits. Fast visitors swing by or plunge in.
  • →Tides stretch them near the hole. Their light shifts red or blue.
  • →Moons stay locked to their planet. Asteroids tumble. Meteors slow down.
  • →Ships accelerate and bank. A second hole has real mass.
  • →A Time-lapse slider speeds it all up.
A sphere showing a different, cooler sky next to the black hole.
6bWormhole: another sky seen through it
A smaller black hole with a disk and a jet next to the main one.
6cA second black hole with its own disk and jet
An Earth-like planet with clouds next to the black hole.
6dAn Earth-like planet lit by the disk

Made to sit behind your work

  • Glowing bands run along the menu bar and the Dock.
  • Three animation levels: everything moves, only the edges move, or a still image.
  • It pauses in Low Power Mode and when windows cover the desktop.
  • Pick a preset per display. A screen saver and a still for the lock screen come with it.
  • Four quality levels: Battery Saver, Balanced, High and Ultra. One level for the power adapter, one for battery, and six areas can be set separately. The jet is smooth already at Balanced.
  • The app is in English and German. It follows the system language, or you choose on the General page.
Everything moves1.7 to 2.6 ms
Only the edges0.12 to 0.14 ms
Fig. 7GPU time per frame, MacBook Air M4 at 3440 x 1440. The app runs at 30 frames per second by default.

26 seconds in motion

Rendered from the app, no sound.

Fig. 8Every shot is rendered by the app itself. Download the MP4

Install

Two ways. Both get you the same app.

Download

  1. Download the latest release from GitHub.Download latest release
  2. Move the app to Applications.
  3. The app is not notarized by Apple, so macOS blocks the first start. Open it once, then click Open Anyway in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/BlackHoleWallpaper.app in Terminal.
  4. It lives in the menu bar. Open Settings from there, or launch the app again from Spotlight.

Homebrew

  1. Run this in Terminal:
  2. The app is not notarized by Apple, so macOS blocks the first start. Open it once, then click Open Anyway in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/BlackHoleWallpaper.app in Terminal.
  3. It lives in the menu bar. Open Settings from there, or launch the app again from Spotlight.

Questions

Is it free?

Yes. Free and open source under the MIT license.

Will it drain my battery?

It pauses in Low Power Mode and when windows cover the desktop. With only the edges moving it needs less than a tenth of the GPU time. On battery you can pick a lighter quality level. Numbers are in the README.

Which Macs does it run on?

macOS 15 or later.

Why does macOS warn me on first launch?

The app is not notarized by Apple. Since macOS 15, right-click and Open no longer helps. Click Open Anyway in System Settings > Privacy & Security once, or remove the quarantine flag with xattr. Homebrew quarantines its download too.

Is the physics real?

The light bending is: the app integrates light rays through Kerr spacetime. The colors are artistic. The README lists exactly what is real and what is approximated.

Can I use my own 3D models?

Yes: OBJ, USDZ, USD, PLY, STL, glTF and GLB.

Which languages does the app speak?

English and German. It follows the system language, or you pick one on the General page.

Does the app go online?

Only for updates. It asks api.github.com at most once a day and loads updates from GitHub's download servers. You can switch the check off on the General page. No analytics.

Does this website track me?

No. No cookies, no analytics, no requests to other servers.