A brief history of black holes : and why nearly everything you know about them is wrong
Publication Information
London : Macmillan, 2022.
Physical Description
279 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Summary
"The Moon goes around the Earth, the Earth goes around the Sun, the Sun goes around the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive black hole. As you read this you are currently orbiting a black hole. Money might make the world go round, but black holes make the universe go round. Black holes are not just a curiosity; they are some of the most important objects for understanding how our universe works and how it came to be. And yet they are incredibly misunderstood; take everything you think you know about black holes and get rid of it. This book will be a book about black holes like no other; it will journey beyond the event horizon and consider what the 'inside' of a black hole is truly like, and flip it on its head. It will take black holes and turn them from something beyond comprehension for the average person on the street to a level of understanding you never thought possible, through unique analogies and ideas the human brain has a hope of actually picturing"--Provided by publisher.
Contents
- Prologue: Standing on the shoulders of giants
- Why the stars shine
- Live fast, die young
- Mountains high enough to keep me from getting to you
- Why black holes are 'black'
- A teaspoon of neutrons helps the stars collapse down!
- Funny, it's spelled just like 'escape'
- Why black holes are not 'black'
- When 2 become 1
- Your friendly neighbourhood black hole
- Supermassive-size Me
- Black holes don't suck
- The old galaxy can't come to the phone right now. Why? Because she's dead
- You can't stop tomorrow coming
- Well, Judy, you did it. She's finally full
- Everything that dies, someday comes back
- Epilogue: Here at the end of all things.