The Shadow of the Black Hole

Black holes entered the world of science fiction and films in the 1960s, and their popularity in our culture remains today. The buzz surrounding black holes was and is due, in large part, to their speculative nature. It is still difficult for the general public to determine fact versus fiction as it pertains to this terrifying idea: something big enough to swallow anything and everything in close proximity, with a gravitational force so strong that nothing, including light, can escape.

In the fall of 2015, scientists at the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected the first sounds from black holes, brought to earth by the gravitational waves that emitted from the merging of two black holes 1.4 billion light years away in space. This confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, which Albert Einstein predicted in 1916. In the spring of 2017, physicists and astronomers who were working on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project captured the first image of a black hole. This was the supermassive black hole hosted by the galaxy M87 in the constellation Virgo, 53 million light years away, and the image shows the shadow the black hole casts upon the bright light surrounding it.

In this book, John Moffat shares the history of black holes and presents the latest research into these mysterious celestial objects, including the astounding results from gravitational wave detection and the shadow of the black hole.


This book is probably the perfect primer for an undergraduate considering a future in cosmology, or for a physicist looking to get a whistle-stop update on gravity, LIGO and the EHT. For those who do persevere through The Shadow of the Black Hole, you will find yourself once more amazed by these stellar graveyards, and the secrets they hold. -- Tushna Commissariat, Physics World

...a thrilling ride through the history of our understanding of gravity and through one of its most intriguing manifestations--black holes. It is a fascinating journey through the author's own interactions with physicists. The book perfects our understanding of gravity, historical facts, and modern experiments, including recent observation of gravitational waves and imaging of a supermassive black hole. This personal touch, along with the scientific rigor, makes this book equally interesting for scientists and anyone interested in science. Take it with you to a class, on a plane, or on a beach, and brace yourself for a thrilling gravity ride at a warp speed! -- Greg Landsberg, Brown University and CERN

...a compelling survey of both the history of theoretical gravity and key new developments in observational astronomy: LIGO and Virgo detections of gravitational waves from black hole and neutron star collisions and the stunning first Event Horizon Telescope image of the shadow of the supermassive black hole M87*. The story is told by a longtime warrior whose battle is nothing short of revolutionizing Einstein's Relativity and the foundations of cosmology as we know it. -- Michael R. Landry, LIGO Hanford Observatory and California Institute of Technology

Moffat takes us on an entertaining journey through the history of physics and cosmology, leading up to the present day where a revolution in astronomy is allowing us to sense the vibrations caused by colliding black holes and to capture the shadow cast by a massive black hole lurking at the center of a nearby galaxy. Looking to the future, Moffat contemplates how these new observatories might finally reveal the true nature of the dark side of the Universe. -- Neil Cornish, eXtreme Gravity Institute, Montana State University