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Black Holes Explained

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Black Holes Explained

By: Alex Filippenko, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Alex Filippenko
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About this listen

Imagine a region in space where the force of gravity is so strong that nothing - not even light - can escape. A region with physical conditions so extreme that they have not yet been reproduced in any terrestrial laboratory. A region so dense that an object as tiny as a walnut would have the same mass as our entire planet. This phenomenon is a black hole: one of the most exotic, mind-boggling, and profound subjects in astrophysics. Nearly everyone has heard of black holes, but few people outside of complex scientific fields understand their true nature and their implications for our universe.

No movie, novel, or other fictional treatment of black holes matches Professor Filippenko’s absorbing presentation of the actual science behind these amazing objects. Black holes are at the heart of some of the most intriguing phenomena in the universe. Not only that, they are ideal gateways to fundamental and cutting-edge concepts in astronomy.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2009 The Great Courses (P)2009 The Teaching Company, LLC Astronomy Astronomy & Space Science Science
All stars
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Overall it is a great series of lectures. However, a lot of references to what is being shown and played and obviously one cannot see it all, so a lot of it is lost completely.

Great Lecture Shame nNo Visuals

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Alex Filippenko's passion for physics makes the lectures enjoyable, great job and i'm looking forward to more content like this.

Black Hole Mystery

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Very well explained and interesting, well structured and comes with a pdf to read any visual items

Fantastic introduction to black holes

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the course is heavily dependent on visual aids which renders listening not really that enjoyable. But lecturer is great and I love the topic.

great topic but not adapted for audiobook format

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As others have said, this course is heavily reliant on visual material, there are whole episodes 'watching' animations and too many 'as you can see here'... so not a course for audio. The included pdf doesn't help much, it doesn't include any of the visual material referred to in the lectures.
Sadly, I also find the presenter's manner to be irritating as he is constantly trying to be 'funny' and laughing at his own 'jokes for 5 year olds'.

I usually really enjoy the great course lectures, but this one just doesn't work as audio.

Not for audio!

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