A Brief History of Black Holes cover art

A Brief History of Black Holes

And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong

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A Brief History of Black Holes

By: Becky Smethurst
Narrated by: Becky Smethurst
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About this listen

This audio edition is narrated with dazzling enthusiasm by the author, Dr Becky Smethurst.

Right now, you are orbiting a black hole.

The Earth orbits the Sun, and the Sun orbits the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive black hole, the strangest and most misunderstood phenomenon in the galaxy.

In A Brief History of Black Holes, the award-winning University of Oxford researcher Dr Becky Smethurst charts five hundred years of scientific breakthroughs in astronomy and astrophysics. She takes us from the earliest observations of the universe and the collapse of massive stars, to the iconic first photographs of a black hole and her own published findings.

A cosmic tale of discovery, Becky explains why black holes aren’t really ‘black’, that you never ever want to be ‘spaghettified’, how black holes are more like sofa cushions than hoovers and why, beyond the event horizon, the future is a direction in space rather than in time. Told with humour and wisdom, this captivating book describes the secrets behind the most profound questions about our universe, all hidden inside black holes.

'A jaunt through space history . . . with charming wit and many pop-culture references' – BBC Sky At Night Magazine

 Astronomy Astronomy & Space Science Cosmology History History & Philosophy Physics Science Black Hole Thought-Provoking Interstellar

Critic reviews

A jaunt through space history . . . with charming wit and many pop culture references
A fantastic read . . . there's certainly a lot to suck you in (unlike black holes, of course)
A lot of astrophysics is packed into this neat little book (Jim Al-Khalili on Space: 10 Things You Should Know )
Bite-sized, cutting edge science delivered with enormous enthusiasm (Chris Lintott on Space: 10 Things You Should Know)
All stars
Most relevant
Got this on release. On a long flight so I listened to it (all 7 hours) from beginning to end and was sufficiently gripped I didn't fall asleep on the plane. Dr Becky has made a name for herself as a science YouTuber and her comfort with presentation comes through in her performance.

And nice chapter names....very amusing

Great introduction to black holes

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I was hooked from start to finish and learned a lot more about black holes that I thought I knew and the scientists that lead the way to the discovery of said holes I hope to read a updated version of the book with the new discoveries that are happening around black holes at the later end of 2023

insightful

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I liked the book a lot and how the author starts every chapter with the beginning of this specific scientific point. Some chapters were not really clear to me but I think the book worth to be re-read.

A great book

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I really enjoyed this book. Great historical references and easy to follow science. spaghettification forever!

Super massively interesting

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I loved this. I am fascinated by cosmology and black holes and Dr Smethurst presents it in an entertaining way that is easy to understand :)

Educational fun

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