Hollywood blockbuster Interstellar should be shown in schools during lessons on astrophysics, scientists have said.
The 2014 sci-fi film used accurate mathematics and simulations in order to depict a giant black hole and a wormhole tunnelling through the fabric of spacetime, and could therefore be a useful teaching tool.
Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, could help students understand the theory of relativity as well as exploring wormholes, according to a report.
Interstellar offers 'a variety of opportunities' for students grappling with Einstein's general theory of relativity, which examines the way gravity arises from massive objects warping space and time, says film's special effects team have said.
Lessons showing how basic relativity concepts underlie wormhole visualisations in the film would be 'motivational', members of the team have argued in an article for the American Journal of Physics It would also be possible for students to explore in a realistic fashion 'what it looks like to travel through a wormhole'.
The team concluded: 'As we wrote this paper, we became more and more enthusiastic about the educational opportunities provided by our Interstellar experience.
'The tools we used in building, scoping out, and exploring Interstellar's wormhole - at least those discussed in this paper - should be easily accessible to fourth year undergraduates studying relativity, as well as to graduate students.
' And the movie itself, and our own route to the final wormhole images in the movie, may be a strong motivator for students.'
Interstellar features a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity.
Wormholes are 'shortcuts' through spacetime that can theoretically exist although none have ever been discovered.
Traditionally they have been depicted in sci-fi movies as portals or doorways in space through which a spaceship can pass and vanish to reappear in another solar system or galaxy.
Physics determined that the Interstellar wormhole looked somewhat different - more like a giant marble hanging in space.
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