by Tony Vinayak

A Brief History of Black Holes

by Dr Becky Smethurst

Publication date – October 24, 2023
Pages – 288

How are the black holes created? How big or small are they? What is an “event horizon” after all? How many black holes are there? Will our very own Sun end its life as a black hole? Is there a black hole at the center of milky way that we all revolve around (the answer is yes)? Did the Big Bang originate from a black hole? And will it all ultimately come to an end as a black hole?

This handy-dandy book covers a lot of ground not only about unravelling the mysteries of black holes, but astronomy and astrophysics in general as well. The author, an astrophysicist at Oxford University, has a witty writing style that livens up abstract topics that can otherwise be rather dense to comprehend. At about 260 pages, the book also covers a lot of ground for the history of astronomy and how it’s been like peeling the layers of an onion especially over the past 500 years or so since the times of Galileo. Remember the demotion of Pluto as a dwarf planet? There’s a whole section devoted to how that came about and stirred up a maelstrom of emotions around the world (and still does).

As a closet astrophysicist and a retiree with ample time to ponder over the mysteries of the wide universe, this books talks to me.