Before looking at how a star collapses to become a black hole, let’s look at its life. Stars are formed inside vast clouds of gas and dust to drift together to form clumps called proto… Read More
The circle of sky is divided into 360 degrees. The “hang ten” sign shows about a 20-degree distance when holding your hand out at arm’s length. This is roughly the length o… Read More
Karl Schwarzschild predicted that a Black hole would be formed when a massive star stopped shining and collapsed in on itself. The gravity would be so large that the material would become mo… Read More
The French Mathematician Pierre Laplace used Newton’s laws to calculate the size of a body that would stop light from escaping. Karl Schwarzschild calculated at what distance from the… Read More
Armed with Einstein’s theories, the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916) developed the idea of the black hole as we know it today. He did not call it a black hole. This ter… Read More
There are two important differences between Laplace’s idea of a dark star and the modern idea of a Black hole. The differences are due to two important discoveries of modern astrophysi… Read More
Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), a French mathematician and astronomer, was one of the first people suggest that black holes could exist. As an expert on celestial Mechanics, he knew how the plan… Read More
When Sir Isaac Newton devised his Law of universal Gravitation, he also suggested that light was subjected to the pull of gravity. On Earth, light always travels in a straight line, unless i… Read More
A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so super strong that nothing can escape it not even light. When scientists call a black hole a giant cosmic vacuum, they do not mean it suck… Read More
Astronauts become 1-2 inches taller while they are in space. Without Earth’s gravity tugging on their bodies, the vertebrae in their spines stretch out. The extra height is only tempor… Read More
Time slows down when traveling at great speed in space, so space travelers age more slowly than they do on Earth. Albert Einstein figured this outIn 1905, long before we started flying in sp… Read More
Einstein made other predictions in his General Theory of Relativity. He said that in super strong gravitational fields, time passes more slowly than it does outside the field. And as gravity… Read More
Mass and weight are often confused. In physics, the mass of an object is the amount of matter in it. Mass is measured in kilograms (kg). Weight is the pull of gravity on an object. Weight is… Read More
Imagine throwing any object straight up. The Earth’s gravity would gradually slow it down and make it fall back to Earth. But if the object was thrown upward fast enough, gravity would… Read More
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that describes the physical characteristics of things in the Universe. Two of the characteristics that astrophysicists study are Gravity and Light Read More
Light travels in waves of particles called photons. Eyes detect light. Some objects, such as stars, can be seen because they make light. Other objects, such as planets of this book, can be s… Read More
Gravity is a force that attracts every object that has mass towards every other object that has mass towards every other object. Mass is the amount of matter an object, or body contains. The… Read More
For centuries, people have been puzzled and fascinated by mysterious places, creatures, and events. Why have ships and planes vanished without a trace when crossing Bermuda Triangle? Are som… Read More
Halley’s Comet zooms by Earth regularly, and so it has a chance a tiny one of colliding with our planet. During a flyby, the famous chunk of ice is easy to spot, even without a telesco… Read More
Hero who could spot and stop Doomsday Meteor would be Carolyn Shoemaker. Since 1983, she has discovered more than 800 asteroids and 32 comets, some of which cross Earth’s orbit. Mrs. S… Read More
It’s a map of galaxies! In 1986, astronomer Margaret Geller led a team of researchers to pinpoint the location of more than 1,000 nearby galaxies. The map shows that galaxies are not e… Read More
The closest major galaxy to Earth, the spiral-shaped AndromedaGalaxy is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. It lies about 2.5 million light-years from Earth and contains over… Read More