Play Audiobook Sample
Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
By the star physicist and author of multiple #1 Sunday Times bestsellers, a major and definitive narrative work on black holes and how they can help us understand the universe.
At the heart of our galaxy lies a monster so deadly it can bend space, throwing vast jets of radiation millions of light years out into the cosmos. Its kind were the very first inhabitants of the universe, the black holes.
Today, across the universe, at the heart of every galaxy, and dotted throughout, mature black holes are creating chaos. And in a quiet part of the universe, the Swift satellite has picked up evidence of a gruesome death caused by one of these dark powers. 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.
They have the power to wipe out any of the universe’s other inhabitants, but no one has ever seen a black hole itself die. But 1.8 billion light years away, the LIGO instruments have recently detected something that could be the closest a black hole gets to death. Gravitational waves given off as two enormous black holes merge together. And now scientists think that these gravitational waves could be evidence of two black holes connecting to form a wormhole – a link through space and time. It seems outlandish, but today’s physicists are daring to think the unthinkable – that black holes could connect us to another universe.
At their very heart, black holes are also where Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity is stretched in almost unimaginable ways, revealing black holes as the key to our understanding of the fundamentals of our universe and perhaps all other universes.
Join Professors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw in exploring our universe’s most mysterious inhabitants, how they are formed, why they are essential components of every galaxy, including our own, and what secrets they still hold, waiting to be discovered.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Download and start listening now!
Black Holes Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About the Authors
Brian Cox is an Emmy Award–winning actor known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first big film break was as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter. His other film credits include The Corruptor, The Ring, and X2. He was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 Queen’s New Year’s Honors List for his accomplishments in theater, film, and television.
Brian Cox is a leading particle physicist and professor at the University of Manchester, as well as a researcher on one of the most ambitious experiments on Earth, the ATLAS experiment on the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. A Royal Society research fellow, professor Cox was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2010. He is the author of numerous books and is well known as presenter of the television series Wonders of the Solar System and Wonders of the Universe. Since 2009 he has cohosted the BCC Radio 4 science comedy program, The Infinite Monkey Cage, with comedian Robin Ince. He was also the keyboard player in the UK pop band D:Ream in the 1990s.
Iva-Marie Palmer is the author of The Summers and The End of the World as We Know It. She grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband.