Publisher Description
If a black hole is not a hole, then what is it? Find out what black holes are, what causes them, and how scientists first discovered them. Learn how astronomers find black holes, get to know our nearest black-hole neighbor, and take a journey that will literally s-t-r-e-t-c-h the mind.
Download and start listening now!
Writing with rare verve ("A black hole is nothing to look at. Literally."), DeCristofano condenses recent astronomical discoveries into a high energy account of what we know or guess about one of the universe's deepest and most unobservable secrets. Covering the life cycle of stars; the formation of black holes and weird optical and physical effects associated with them; more recent revelations of super-sized black holes at the centers of galaxies; and the general effects of mass on space, light, and matter, she presents a clear, well-rounded picture of the strange structure and stranger physics of black holes. After leading a wild ride over a black hole's event horizon ("Right away, you would need a new nickname--something like Stretch . . . .") and explaining theories about gravity from Newton's notions to "Einstein's Spacey Ideas," DeCristofano leaves readers to ponder the truth of her claim that a black hole isn't a hole--but "NOT exactly NOT a hole either." Enhanced by a time line and a generous set of further resources--and illustrated with plenty of cogent diagrams, space photographs, and Carroll's dramatic images of stellar whirlpools and mammoth jets of gas around cores of impenetrable blackness--this book will snatch readers from their orbits and fling them into a lasting fascination with nature's most attractive phenomena. Literally.—Booklist, starred review
—
About Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano
Carolyn Cinami
DeCristofano has been named a Creative Teaching Partner by the
Massachusetts Cultural Council. She has developed science programs with NASA
and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She is also the author of
Leonardo’s ABCs. Currently she and her husband live in Plympton, Massachusetts.
About the Narrators
Maxwell Glick is
an actor based in Los Angeles. He has appeared on television in guest roles in
numerous shows such as The Office and
Castle. He also has voiced numerous
commercials, audiobooks, and cartoons. Originally a regional theater actor,
Glick has played Arpad in She Loves Me,
Matt in The Fantasticks, and Eugene
in Brighton Beach Memoirs. A New York
native, he is a graduate of Boston College.
Tara Sands is an American actress, television host, and voice talent who has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards for narration. She is former cohost of Fridays on the Cartoon Network. In addition to performing in plays and musicals, her voice can be heard on numerous commercials, audiobooks, cartoons, and video games.
Everette Plen is an actor and audiobook narrator. He has appeared in Disney’s Really Short Shorts, Criminal Minds, ER, and television commercials. His extensive voice-over work includes readings of Mark Goldblatt’s Twerp, Lenore Look’s Alvin Ho series, and many other titles for young readers.