Black Holes

Guide Note

Black holes are objects with gravitational fields so powerful that nothing (including light) can escape from them. Black holes are formed when massive stars collapse to a point with infinite density and become a singularity.

Fast Facts

1. In 1967 John Archibald Wheeler coined the term "Black Hole"
2. Cygnus X-1 was the first solid black hole candidate in 1970
3. Throughout the 1990s the Hubble Space Telescope found evidence that supermassive black holes may exist in the centers of many galaxies in the universe, including our own.

Timeline

• 1784: John Michell came up with a star from which no light can escape
• 1796: Pierre-Simon Laplace expanded on the idea of the "dark star"
• 1915: Einstein developed general relativity
• 1916: Karl Schwarzchild defined the gravitational radius of what would later be know as a 'black hole'
• 1930: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar argues that stars can collapse
• 1967: Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose lay out modern black hole theory
• 1967: John Wheeler coined the term 'black hole'
• 1970: Cygnus X-1 is found, the first good black hole candidate
• 1974: Stephen Hawking discovers Hawking Radiation
• 1994: Hubble Telescope found evidence of supermassive black holes in centers of some galaxies

• Also try: Death Star Galaxy

The Mahalo Top 7

1. Wikipedia: Black Hole
2. UC Berkeley: Black Hole FAQ
3. Space.com: Black Hole Information 
4. Chandra X-ray Observatory: Black Hole Photos 
5. Interactive Learning: Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull
6. ArsTechnica: A Potential Solution to the Black Hole Information Paradox
7. Presentations: Black Holes 

Black Holes Recent News

• Google News: Black Holes
• Yahoo News: Black Holes
• Science Daily: Black Hole News
• New Scientist: Milky Way's Antimatter Linked To Exotic Black Holes (January 22, 2008) 
• New Scientist: 'Monsters' Blamed For Extreme Chaos In Black Holes (January 18, 2008) 
• BBC News: Huge black hole tips the scales (January 10, 2008)
• New Scientist: Could black holes be portals to other universes? (2007)
• Universe Today: Are Microscopic Black Holes Buzzing Around Earth?

Black Holes Figures

• John Michell
• Pierre-Simon Laplace
• Albert Einstein
• Karl Schwarzchild
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
• Robert Oppenheimer
• Roy Kerr
• David Finkelstein
• Stephen Hawking
• Roger Penrose
• John Archibald Wheeler
• Kip Thorne

Black Holes Research

• Observation of Incipient Black Holes and the Information Loss Problem 
• ScienceDaily: Discovery of Gamma Rays from Edge of a Black Hole(2006)
• NASA: Black Hole Snacks(2001)
• Supermassive Black Holes
• Scientific American: Quantum Black Holes(2005)
• Scientific American: The Galactic Odd Couple(2003)

Black Holes Fun Stuff

• University of Colorado: Falling Into A Black Hole 
• Spacetimetravel.org: Step by Step Into a Black Hole
• Hubblesite Gravity's Relentless Pull
• NASA: Black Hole Rescue
• Music Video: Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
• Music Video: Muse - Supermassive Black Hole

Black Holes Education Resources

• Howstuffworks.com: How Black Holes Work
• About.com: What Is A Black Hole?
• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Black Holes
• Space Telescope Science Institute: No Escape, The Truth About Black Holes
• Chandra X-ray Observatory: Field Guide to Black Holes
• Superstringtheory.com: Black Holes
• PBS: Stephen Hawking's Strange Stuff Explained
• A Hitchhiker's Guide to Black Holes

Higher Level Education Sources

• UC Berkeley: Black Hole FAQ
• Syracuse University: Introducing the Black Hole
• MIT Open Courseware: Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity & Astrophysics

Black Holes In The Media

• NOVA: The Elegant Universe
• Amazon: Sphere (Book)
• Amazon: Muse - Black Holes and Revelation (CD)

Black Hole Movies

•  WARNING: The following IMDb Sites Have Popups:
• The Black Hole (1979)
• A Brief History of Time (1991)(Documentary)
• Event Horizon (1997)
• The Black Hole (2006)(TV)

Black Holes Blogs and Forums

• Universe Today: Black Holes
• Bad Astronomy

Black Holes Conferences and Symposiums

• Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics: Black Hole Conference 2002
• International Center for Theoretical Physics: Conference on Black Hole Physics 1999
• Space Telescope Science Institute: 2007 Spring Symposium: Black Holes

Black Holes Books & Publications

• Google Book Search: Black Holes
• Amazon.com: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Amazon.com Black Holes and Baby Universes by Stephen Hawking
• Amazon.com Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne
• Amazon.com The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

Black Holes Theories

The Follow Theories Are Described on Wikipedia:

• Schwarzchild Metric
• Schwarzchild Radius
• Gravitational Singularity
• Hawking Radiation
• Rotating Black Hole
• Black Hole Information Paradox
• No Hair Theorem
• NewScientistSpace: Black Holes: The Ultimate Quantum Computers?(2006)

Sizes of Black Holes

The Follow Theories Are Described on Wikipedia:

• Supermassive Black Hole
• Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
• Stellar Black Hole
• Micro Black Hole

Black Holes Images and Video

• Chandra X-ray Observatory: Black Hole Photo Album
• Astronomy Picture of the Day: Black Holes
• Skymap.org: Cygnus X-1 Pictures
• Max Planck Institute: Movie of Black Hole Candidate
• YouTube: Stephen Hawking, Black Holes, and The Creator
• YouTube & Google Video: Black Hole

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