The colored fields represent a component of the curvature of space-time. The outer red sheets correspond directly to the outgoing gravitational radiation that one day may be detected by gravitational-wave observatories. The brighter yellow areas near the black holes do not correspond to physical structures but generally indicate where the strong non-linear gravitational-field interactions are in play.
Credit: NASA/C. Henze
See: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011086/
