A Brief History of Black Holes cover art

A Brief History of Black Holes

And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

A Brief History of Black Holes

By: Becky Smethurst
Narrated by: Becky Smethurst
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £9.33

Buy Now for £9.33

Summary

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
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c

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
a compøex Subject so structures and attractively presented. Nice to see academic with such capability. should be made a course at high schools

wonderful story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the ultimate companion to the Super Massive Black Hole drinking game. Enjoy

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dr Becky explains complex science in a way that's a joy to understand. She also reads in a engaging and interesting manner making listening easy and fun.

Well read and informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dr Becky says naught a lot.

That being said, it's actually a very interesting book and covers the mainstream topics of black holes really well. As someone who listens to audiobooks regularly I loved the more informal delivery and made it much easier listening.

it's a must listen to, especially if you're fairly new to the topic of black holes.

naught, naught naught, naught naught naught.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is incredibly fun and engaging, purely because Dr. Becky goes on tangents and makes extra comments and references to pop culture! It's more a conversation with a friend than it is an audiobook

An absolutely magestic work

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews