[dumpsterdiver]

It sounds like you’re conflating time dilation with the concept of light being unable to escape once it crosses an event horizon.

Nothing is actually “frozen” around a black hole, but if you accept that light cannot escape once it passes an event horizon then it follows that there must have been one final moment when light still could escape. The light that was able to escape in that final moment would reach your eyes as a “frozen” image of the object where it previously was the exact moment before gravity became too much to overcome.

[cwillu]

What's mind bending to me is that a second object just short of that point _also_ sees the first object frozen. It doesn't matter how close you get to the horizon, the image of an object that got there first is still infinitely far in your future.

[dumpsterdiver]

Yeah, that really is so neat to visualize. That there’s a hard line when the escape velocity reaches exactly the speed of light, and poof. Frozen image of the past right in front of your eyes.

And think… once we crossed the event horizon as observers ourselves (leaving a frozen image for observers behind to see), wouldn’t we see the “tracers” of images the person before us left behind every moment we move closer to the singularity? Edit: no… we never would see any light (in front of us) again by definition when crossing the horizon, duh lol.