Horizons: Black Holes, Wormholes, and the Key to the Universe

By the star physicist and author of multiple #1 Sunday Times bestsellers, a major and definitive narrative work on black holes and how they can help us understand the universe. At the heart of our galaxy lies a monster so deadly it can bend space, throwing vast jets of radiation millions of light years out into the cosmos. Its kind were the very first inhabitants of the universe, the black holes. Today, across the universe, at the heart of every galaxy, and dotted throughout, mature black holes are creating chaos. And in a quiet part of the universe, the Swift satellite has picked up evidence of a gruesome death caused by one of these dark powers. High energy X-ray flares shooting out from deep within the Draco constellation are thought to be the dying cries of a white dwarf star being ripped apart by the intense tides of a supermassive black hole – heating it to millions of degrees as it is shredded at the event horizon. They have the power to wipe out any of the universe's other inhabitants, but no one has ever seen a black hole itself die. But 1.8 billion light years away, the LIGO instruments have recently detected something that could be the closest a black hole gets to death. Gravitational waves given off as two enormous black holes merge together. And now scientists think that these gravitational waves could be evidence of two black holes connecting to form a wormhole – a link through space and time. It seems outlandish, but today's physicists are daring to think the unthinkable – that black holes could connect us to another universe. At their very heart, black holes are also where Einstein's Theory of General Relativity is stretched in almost unimaginable ways, revealing black holes as the key to our understanding of the fundamentals of our universe and perhaps all other universes. Join Professors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw in exploring our universe's most mysterious inhabitants, how they are formed, why they are essential components of every galaxy, including our own, and what secrets they still hold, waiting to be discovered. By the star physicist and author of multiple #1 Sunday Times bestsellers, a major and definitive narrative work on black holes and how they can help us understand the universe. Of all the many scientific marvels occurring in our universe, perhaps none have been more consistently intriguing and mysterious than black holes. What are they, exactly? How do they form? And what can they tell us about the nature and future of our universe? Renowned physicist Brian Cox has dedicated his career to presenting complicated scientific ideas in an engaging way, from his popular BBC podcast "The Infinite Monkey Cage," to his frequently sold-out speaking events, to his bestselling books written with fellow physicist Jeff Forshaw. Now the two team up once again with Horizons, an exploration of these amazing objects--and why they continue to confirm that Einstein's theory of general relativity is such a brilliant explanation of the universe around us. "At the heart of our galaxy lies a monster four million times more massive than the Sun. Within its domain, space and time are so warped that no light escapes. According to Einstein, here lies the end of time. According to twenty-first century physics, the reality may be far more bizarre. Meet the most extraordinary object in the universe: the black hole ... In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw take you to the edge of our understanding of black holes; a scientific journey to the research frontier spanning a century of physics, from Einstein to Hawking and beyond"--Dust jacket flap