In November 1915, a German officer on leave attended a lecture on relativity given by Albert Einstein. Before joining the Kaiser’s army, that officer, Karl Schwarzschild, was the director of the prestigious Berlin Observatory. Schwarzschild developed an exact solution for Einstein’s theory of general relativity. He sent it to Einstein, who credited Schwarzschild with achieving what Einstein had failed to do.
Black Holes and Major Implications
This book follows the implications and consequences of Schwarzschild’s discovery. Initially, it was disbelieved and dismissed as a mathematical artifact. Einstein dismissed it as something impossible in the real world. Over the next 50 years evidence accumulated Schwarzschild’s anomaly actually existed.After American physicist Joseph Wheeler coined the term “black hole” in 1967, interest in the phenomenon exploded. Then, in 1971, a black hole was found. In the 50 years that followed, black holes went from an astronomical curiosity to the central player in modern astrophysics.
Chown takes readers through this process, from Schwarzschild’s discovery through today. He presents the string of discoveries that led to modern cosmology through the eyes of the scientists who made them. He uses their own words whenever possible, gleaned through interviews with the participants or through their correspondence if they had died.
The result is a fascinating look at the process of scientific development. It’s a story about the march of technology. Optical telescopes alone prove inadequate tools to validate the existence of black holes. Chown shows how mid-century radio telescopes and later orbital observatories launched in the 1980s and 1990s opened new views of the sky.
Yet Chown also shows that people were as important as the tools available. He recounts inspired leaps in knowledge and “aha!” moments that occurred. He also traces the blind alleys followed and backtracking necessary to arrive at the truth behind black holes. He introduces the scientists as they contribute to the process. They’re revealed as brilliant, eccentric, and sometime flawed human beings.
Chown explains how black holes shaped the universe, our galaxy, and ultimately made life on Earth possible. He writes in clear and compelling language, conveying complex scientific and engineering concepts in ways everyone can understand and can, therefore, appreciate the significance of black holes.
