What Does a Black Hole Look Like?
eBook - ePub

What Does a Black Hole Look Like?

  1. 224 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

What Does a Black Hole Look Like?

About this book

A sophisticated introduction to how astronomers identify, observe, and understand black holes

Emitting no radiation or any other kind of information, black holes mark the edge of the universe—both physically and in our scientific understanding. Yet astronomers have found clear evidence for the existence of black holes, employing the same tools and techniques used to explore other celestial objects. In this sophisticated introduction, leading astronomer Charles Bailyn goes behind the theory and physics of black holes to describe how astronomers are observing these enigmatic objects and developing a remarkably detailed picture of what they look like and how they interact with their surroundings.

Accessible to undergraduates and others with some knowledge of introductory college-level physics, this book presents the techniques used to identify and measure the mass and spin of celestial black holes. These key measurements demonstrate the existence of two kinds of black holes, those with masses a few times that of a typical star, and those with masses comparable to whole galaxies—supermassive black holes. The book provides a detailed account of the nature, formation, and growth of both kinds of black holes. The book also describes the possibility of observing theoretically predicted phenomena such as gravitational waves, wormholes, and Hawking radiation.

A cutting-edge introduction to a subject that was once on the border between physics and science fiction, this book shows how black holes are becoming routine objects of empirical scientific study.

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Yes, you can access What Does a Black Hole Look Like? by Charles D. Bailyn in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Physical Sciences & Astronomy & Astrophysics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. 1. Introducing Black Holes: Event Horizons and Singularities
  8. 2. Accretion onto a Black Hole
  9. 3. Outflows and Jets
  10. 4. Stellar-Mass Black Holes
  11. 5. Supermassive Black Holes
  12. 6. Formation and Evolution of Black Holes
  13. 7. Do Intermediate-Mass Black Holes Exist?
  14. 8. Black Hole Spin
  15. 9. Detecting Black Holes through Gravitational Waves
  16. 10. Black Hole Exotica
  17. Glossary
  18. Index