Black Hole : How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled On by Hawking Became Loved / Marcia Bartusiak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bartusiak, Marcia, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Black holes (Astronomy).

Discoveries in science.

Science--Social aspects.

Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (256 p.)

Place of Publication:

2020.

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The contentious history of the idea of the black hole-the most fascinating and bizarre celestial object in the heavens For more than half a century, physicists and astronomers engaged in heated dispute over the possibility of black holes in the universe. The weirdly alien notion of a space-time abyss from which nothing escapes-not even light-seemed to confound all logic. This engrossing book tells the story of the fierce black hole debates and the contributions of Einstein and Hawking and other leading thinkers who completely altered our view of the universe. Renowned science writer Marcia Bartusiak shows how the black hole helped revive Einstein's greatest achievement, the general theory of relativity, after decades during which it had been pushed into the shadows. Not until astronomers discovered such surprising new phenomena as neutron stars and black holes did the once-sedate universe transform into an Einsteinian cosmos, filled with sources of titanic energy that can be understood only in the light of relativity. This book celebrates the hundredth anniversary of general relativity, uncovers how the black hole really got its name, and recounts the scientists' frustrating, exhilarating, and at times humorous battles over the acceptance of one of history's most dazzling ideas.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

1. It Is Therefore Possible That the Largest Luminous Bodies in the Universe May Be Invisible

2. Newton, Forgive Me

3. One Would Then Find Oneself . . . in a Geometrical Fairyland

4. There Should Be a Law of Nature to Prevent a Star from Behaving in This Absurd Way!

5. I'll Show Those Bastards

6. Only Its Gravitational Field Persists

7. I Could Not Have Picked a More Exciting Time in Which to Become a Physicist

8. It Was the Weirdest Spectrum I'd Ever Seen

9. Why Don't You Call It a Black Hole?

10. Medieval Torture Rack

11. Whereas Stephen Hawking Has Such a Large Investment in General Relativity and Black Holes and Desires an Insurance Policy

12. Black Holes Ain't So Black

Epilogue

Timeline

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300219661

0300219660

9780300213638

0300213638

OCLC:

905902885