The observations of the Event Horizon Telescope led to the first mages of a black hole, an object with so much gravity that not even light can escape it. These images remain fuzzy but clearly show the shadow of a black hole with a bright disk and will only improve in quality over
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The observations of the Event Horizon Telescope led to the first mages of a black hole, an object with so much gravity that not even light can escape it. These images remain fuzzy but clearly show the shadow of a black hole with a bright disk and will only improve in quality over time. We want to be able to deduce, from the images, the following properties of the observed black hole; the mass, the angular momentum and the orientation of the black hole. This can be done by visualising the mathematical model of a black hole. This model is a result of the theory of general relativity and comparing the theoretical model to the real-life observations could be used to validate this theory. We have visualized a Kerr black hole. This is a black hole that is more realistic than the original Schwarzschild black hole because it also includes the angular momentum of the black hole. The Kerr solution describes the curvature of space-time around a rotating black hole. This curvature of spacetime causes light rays to travel in a curved path instead of a straight line. The distortion of light rays causes distortions in the image of a black hole in a similar way that a lens of a camera causes distortion in an image by curving light. By using the mathematical field of differential geometry we can exactly describe the curved path of a light ray around a Kerr black hole. This path of the light ray can be formulated in different coordinate systems. We will use the so-called Kerr-Schild coordinate system because it does not have the coordinate-related singularities of other coordinate systems. To create the visualisation of a Kerr black hole we will implement a ray-tracing algorithm. This is an algorithm that can create a 2D projection of a 3D space. The algorithm normally uses straight light rays to create an image, we will however adapt this program to model the curved light rays around a Kerr black hole. The visualisation employs a celestial sphere around the black hole to project the universe around it. Furthermore, an accretion disk around the black hole is added to model light-emitting particles orbiting the black hole. Our ray-tracing algorithm makes it possible to realistically visualise a Kerr black hole with varying parameters. These parameters are the mass of the black hole, the angular momentum, orientation compared to the observer and the size and structure of the accretion disk. To exemplify the ability of the ray-tracing model to fit these parameters, different angular momentum and orientation values are compared to the properties of the resulting image. This means that when in the future we get higher resolution observations of a black hole, the properties of this black hole can be deduced from the ray-tracing model. This can help our understanding of the curvature of space-time caused by general relativity and our understanding of the universe as a whole.