Description
Tesserites are objects that drift close enough to a black hole to be significantly stretched by tidal forces, but not close enough to fall in. The word tesserite is derived from tesseract, a term often used to describe black holes.
Naturally occurring tesserites were brought back by explorers as souvenirs of their travels, and caught on as a popular curiosity. Various shops sell tesserites, and a number of entrepreneurs have been known to create tesserites out of natural or artificial objects by firing them (usually from a rail-gun) on a trajectory close to a black hole, and then catching them on the other side.
In the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns, some keep natural tesserites as tokens of good luck, and philosophers sometimes keep them as objects of contemplation.
Artificial tesserites are mainly popular in human-controlled space.
