A Brief History of Black Holes

And Why Nearly Everything You Know About Them Is Wrong

By: Dr Becky Smethurst

Narrated by: Dr. Becky Smethurst

Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's 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.

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

©2022 Dr Rebecca Smethurst (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited

Critic reviews

'A jaunt through space history . . . with charming wit and many pop-culture references' – BBC Sky At Night Magazine

Great, but a bit oversimplified

There are many great peaces of information, but I guess the target audience are people without any knowledge about physics and astronomy. For that people I guess this book will be perfect.

Excellent space history lesson

Very informative and well done. One of the few times the author reading their own work makes the audio version even better. Recommend

My favorite astrophysicist

I had a few driveway moments where I did not want to stop listening. Reading book is nice but hearing an author put her personality into it is so much better. I especially like the way a Brit pronounce zero as naught. Then to pronounce 0.0000001 produces many naught naught, …. There’s plenty of great astrophysicist history as background to the black holes. I also love her many references to women in science.

Black holes for dummies

A delight! Very good explained principle and history of one of the hottest current issues in physics.

Excellent primer and updater

An excellent book that entertainingly tells the full story of black holes as we know them to date. I thought I knew most of this material already, but there was much I’d either never heard, had forgotten, or has been superseded since I was getting my physics degree.

Entertaining and Informative

This is the way to learn. Dr. Becky tackles enormous subjects and explains them so that most anyone can grasp and comprehend them with a smile.

Superb and many more to come i hope. i know more

I liked the stories about the interactions scientists. Nerds have lives too! Amazing fun and quite a learning experience.

beautiful

Dr. Becky nararates it herself, you can feel the passion for the content. flawless.

science and the art of inspirational storytelling

this is surely one of the best science books I have read. it is a great science history book as well as a great astronomy book. I believe the author could become a next Carl Sagan and Jacques Cousteau for bringing people into science and bringing science into people's lives in a very positive way.

Dr. Becky (of YouTube fame) explains it all!!

Ever wanted to really understand black holes? One of the best science communicators of our generation, who happens to also be a PhD studying black holes, is here to help. Big ones aren't black. They don't suck things in. Could Planet 9 be one that could fit in your hand? Find out! And take your kids along for the journey.