The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy (eBook)

Fulvio Melia (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2018
208 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-18636-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Could Einstein have possibly anticipated directly testing the most captivating prediction of general relativity, that there exist isolated pockets of spacetime shielded completely from our own? Now, almost a century after that theory emerged, one of the world's leading astrophysicists presents a wealth of recent evidence that just such an entity, with a mass of about three million suns, is indeed lurking at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way--in the form of a supermassive ''black hole''! With this superbly illustrated, elegantly written, nontechnical account of the most enigmatic astronomical object yet observed, Fulvio Melia captures all the excitement of the growing realization that we are on the verge of actually seeing this exotic object within the next few years. Melia traces our intellectual pilgrimage to the ''brooding behemoth'' at the heart of the Milky Way. He describes the dizzying technological advances that have recently brought us to the point of seeing through all the cosmic dust to a dark spot in a clouded cluster of stars in the constellation Sagittarius. Carefully assembling the compelling circumstantial evidence for its black hole status, he shows that it is primed to reveal itself as a glorious panorama of activity within this decade--through revolutionary images of its ''event horizon'' against the bright backdrop of nearby, radiating gas. Uniquely, this book brings together a specific and fascinating astronomical subject--black holes--with a top researcher to provide both amateur and armchair astronomers, but also professional scientists seeking a concise overview of the topic, a real sense of the palpable thrill in the scientific community when an important discovery is imminent.

Autor

Fulvio Melia is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Arizona and Scientific Editor of the Astrophysical Journal. A former Presidential Young Investigator and Sloan Research Fellow, he is the author of more than 170 articles on theoretical astrophysics and of a textbook, Electrodynamics.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.6.2018
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: acceleration • Active Galactic Nucleus • Andromeda Galaxy • Antimatter • Apollo 15 • Astronomer • Astronomy • astrophysics • Atmosphere of Earth • binary star • Black Hole • Chandra X-Ray Observatory • Chronology of the universe • Circular Orbit • Cosmic distance ladder • Cosmic Dust • Cosmic Eye • Cosmic Ray • cosmic string • Down quark • Earth radius • Electronvolt • Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope • Event horizon • Foundations of Physics • Frozen star (hypothetical star) • Galactic Center • Galactic plane • Galaxy cluster • Galileo Galilei • Gamma ray • gamma-ray astronomy • General relativity • gravitational acceleration • Gravitational Field • gravitational lens • Gravitational redshift • Gravitational Wave • Gravity • Gravity of Earth • Gravity Probe A • Hawking Radiation • Higgs Mechanism • Home Plate (Mars) • Hubble space telescope • Interstellar Medium • Johannes Kepler • Large Hadron Collider • light-year • magellanic clouds • Magnetosphere • Mercury (planet) • Methods of detecting exoplanets • milky way • National Radio Astronomy Observatory • Neutrino • Neutron • neutron star • Newton's law of universal gravitation • Nuclear explosion • nuclear reaction • Orbit of Mars • Parabolic trajectory • Particle accelerator • Peculiar galaxy • Photon • physicist • physics beyond the standard model • Plasma (physics) • quantum mechanics • Quasar • Radiation • Radio Astronomy • Radio Galaxy • Radio Telescope • Relativistic Plasma • Sagittarius A • SAGITTARIUS A* • schwarzschild radius • Solar eclipse • Solar mass • Space Age • spacecraft • Space telescope • Space Telescope Science Institute • Special relativity • Spiral galaxy • star cluster • star formation • stellar evolution • Subatomic particle • Superluminal motion • Supermassive Black Hole • Supernova • Supernova Remnant • Synchrotron radiation • The Astrophysical Journal • Wavelength • x-ray astronomy • X-ray telescope
• ISBN-10: 0-691-18636-7 / 0691186367
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-18636-8 / 9780691186368