Black Hole Survival Guide

Author: Janna Levin
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1984899791
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space—an authoritative and accessible guide to the most alluring and challenging phenomena of contemporary science. "[Levin will] take you on a safe black hole trip, an exciting travel story enjoyed from your chair’s event horizon.” —Boston Globe Through her writing, astrophysicist Janna Levin has focused on making the science she studies not just comprehensible but also, and perhaps more important, intriguing to the nonscientist. In this book, she helps us to understand and find delight in the black hole—perhaps the most opaque theoretical construct ever imagined by physicists—illustrated with original artwork by American painter and photographer Lia Halloran. Levin takes us on an evocative exploration of black holes, provoking us to imagine the visceral experience of a black hole encounter. She reveals the influence of black holes as they populate the universe, sculpt galaxies, and even infuse the whole expanse of reality that we inhabit. Lively, engaging, and utterly unique, Black Hole Survival Guide is not just informative—it is, as well, a wonderful read from first to last.

The Black Hole War

Author: Leonard Susskind
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316032697
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Does it disappear? Three decades ago, a young physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed it did, and in doing so put at risk everything we know about physics and the fundamental laws of the universe. Most scientists didn't recognize the import of Hawking's claims, but Leonard Susskind and Gerard t'Hooft realized the threat, and responded with a counterattack that changed the course of physics. The Black Hole War is the thrilling story of their united effort to reconcile Hawking's revolutionary theories of black holes with their own sense of reality -- effort that would eventually result in Hawking admitting he was wrong, paying up, and Susskind and t'Hooft realizing that our world is a hologram projected from the outer boundaries of space. A brilliant book about modern physics, quantum mechanics, the fate of stars and the deep mysteries of black holes, Leonard Susskind's account of the Black Hole War is mind-bending and exhilarating reading.

Black Holes and Time Warps

Author: Kip S Thorne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393312768
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 648

Book Description
In this masterfully written and brilliantly informed work, Dr. Rhorne, the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, leads readers through an elegant, always human, tapestry of interlocking themes, answering the great question: what principles control our universe and why do physicists think they know what they know? Features an introduction by Stephen Hawking.

The Little Book of Black Holes

Author: Steven S. Gubser
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888298
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description
Dive into a mind-bending exploration of the physics of black holes Black holes, predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity more than a century ago, have long intrigued scientists and the public with their bizarre and fantastical properties. Although Einstein understood that black holes were mathematical solutions to his equations, he never accepted their physical reality—a viewpoint many shared. This all changed in the 1960s and 1970s, when a deeper conceptual understanding of black holes developed just as new observations revealed the existence of quasars and X-ray binary star systems, whose mysterious properties could be explained by the presence of black holes. Black holes have since been the subject of intense research—and the physics governing how they behave and affect their surroundings is stranger and more mind-bending than any fiction. After introducing the basics of the special and general theories of relativity, this book describes black holes both as astrophysical objects and theoretical “laboratories” in which physicists can test their understanding of gravitational, quantum, and thermal physics. From Schwarzschild black holes to rotating and colliding black holes, and from gravitational radiation to Hawking radiation and information loss, Steven Gubser and Frans Pretorius use creative thought experiments and analogies to explain their subject accessibly. They also describe the decades-long quest to observe the universe in gravitational waves, which recently resulted in the LIGO observatories’ detection of the distinctive gravitational wave “chirp” of two colliding black holes—the first direct observation of black holes’ existence. The Little Book of Black Holes takes readers deep into the mysterious heart of the subject, offering rare clarity of insight into the physics that makes black holes simple yet destructive manifestations of geometric destiny.

Black Holes

Author: Sara Latta
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN: 1512415685
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 124

Book Description
Explore the cutting-edge science of black hole research and discover fascinating interviews with respected scientists in the field.

Exploring Black Holes

Author: Edwin F. Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780321512864
Category : Black holes (Astronomy)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description

Black Hole

Author: Charles Burns
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 037542380X
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Book Description
“The best graphic novel of the year” (Time) tells the story of a strange plague devastating the lives of teenagers in mid-1970s suburban Seattle, revealing the horrifying nature of high school alienation—the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety, and the ennui. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area’s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways—from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)—but once you’ve got it, that’s it. There’s no turning back. As we inhabit the heads of several key characters—some kids who have it, some who don’t, some who are about to get it—what unfolds isn’t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it , or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself. And then the murders start. As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it—back when it wasn’t exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird. To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin…

Artificial Black Holes

Author: Mario Novello
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814489603
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 415

Book Description
Physicists are pondering on the possibility of simulating black holes in the laboratory by means of various “analog models”. These analog models, typically based on condensed matter physics, can be used to help us understand general relativity (Einstein's gravity); conversely, abstract techniques developed in general relativity can sometimes be used to help us understand certain aspects of condensed matter physics. This book contains 13 chapters — written by experts in general relativity, particle physics, and condensed matter physics — that explore various aspects of this two-way traffic.

Black Holes

Author: Jean-Pierre Luminet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521409063
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
Black holes are undoubtedly one of the most fascinating discoveries of modern astronomy, and their description one of the most daring intellectual feats of modern times. They have already become legendary, forming the basis of many myths, fantasies and science fiction movies. Are they really the monsters which devour light and stars; bottomless celestial pits into which all matter is sucked and crushed? Are they an observable reality, or are they just hypothetical objects from the theory of relativity? In answering such questions the author takes us on a fabulous journey through space and time. Dr Jean-Pierre Luminet is an astronomer at Meudon Observatory in France, a specialist on the subject of black holes, and has also acquired a reputation for being a gifted writer and communicator. In this book he makes the subject of black holes accessible to any interested reader, who will need no mathematical background.

A Black Hole Is Not a Hole

Author: Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing
ISBN: 1632896478
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 82

Book Description
Budding astronomers and scientists will love this humorous introduction to the extremely complex concept of black holes. With space facts and answers about the galaxies (ours, and others) A Black Hole is NOT a Hole takes readers on a ride that will stretch their minds around the phenomenon known as a black hole. In lively and text, the book starts off with a thorough explanation of gravity and the role it plays in the formation of black holes. Paintings by Michael Carroll, coupled with real telescopic images, help readers visualize the facts and ideas presented in the text, such as how light bends, and what a supernova looks like. Back matter includes a timeline which sums up important findings discussed throughout, while the glossary and index provide a quick point of reference for readers. Children and adults alike will learn a ton of spacey facts in this far-out book that’s sure to excite even the youngest of astrophiles.