Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe

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This is one reason why it is vital that we continue to support the most esoteric scientific endeavours. Highly recommended for educated readers who can kepe up with a little hard science that hasn't been overly diluted for general consumption.

Black holes are places in space and time where the laws of gravity, quantum physics and thermodynamics collide. I would advise a bit of a science background and perhaps a few other easier books in the subject first if you want to get the most out of this book, but if you don’t mind a bit of challenge and denser stuff flying over your non-physicist head then like me, you can brave it, and maybe you’ll like it, too.This is most likely a 5* book, but I’m only rating it on my own reading experience (including my obvious ignorance to space stuff). They are naturally occurring objects, the inevitable creations of gravity when too much matter collapses into not enough space. If anything, I found the writing very engaging, and I think it could easily appeal to anyone who is willing to put in a little extra effort. High energy X-ray flares shooting out from deep within the Draco constellation are thought to be the dying cries of a white dwarf star being ripped apart by the intense tides of a supermassive black hole - heating it to millions of degrees as it is shredded at the event horizon.

The more the authors enlightened me about Black Holes, the denser my brain became until I eventually passed through the Event Horizon (my ability to read further) which resulted in a Singularity. I bought this book because I’ve been reading a lot about black holes and general relativity lately, including Sean Carrol’s latest book on The Biggest Ideas in the Universe (highly recommend). If Hawking was right, black holes would render the Universe fundamentally unpredictable and the foundations of physics would crumble. He is perhaps best known as a science broadcaster and host of the BBC’s hugely popular Wonders series.What I’m trying to say is that I don’t think that this book is only for the space-ey academics; anyone can enjoy it too. I especially appreciated the clear explanations of Penrose diagrams and their use to explain different types of black holes.