A Brief History of Black Holes cover art

A Brief History of Black Holes

And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Brief History of Black Holes

By: Becky Smethurst
Narrated by: Becky Smethurst
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $19.99

Buy Now for $19.99

About this listen

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.

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

 Astronomy Astronomy & Space Science Cosmology History History & Philosophy Physics Science

Critic Reviews

A jaunt through space history . . . with charming wit and many pop culture references
A fantastic read . . . there's certainly a lot to suck you in (unlike black holes, of course)
A lot of astrophysics is packed into this neat little book (Jim Al-Khalili on Space: 10 Things You Should Know )
Bite-sized, cutting edge science delivered with enormous enthusiasm (Chris Lintott on Space: 10 Things You Should Know)
All stars
Most relevant
If you are an amateur star gazer or a astrophysics fan you MUST listen to A Brief History of Black Holes. Dr Becky will wrap your brain in the most understandable but awesomely brilliant concepts that will have you thinking “I really get it now!”💡

Dr Becky Smethurst is a GENIUS Science Communicator!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator is so enthusiastic and knowledgeable it is impossible not to feel fascinated. She answers all the questions and mostly without too much jargon. She actually gives us a history of the study of black holes. I also love the fact that she references discoveries to the appropriate scientists and demonstrate what a labour of love astrophysics is.
A beautiful book for all of us astro nerds....

Weird and wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I realised listening to this I knew a lot of physics theories but I never truly understood them, now I (mostly) do. And I keep telling people random things from this book, it was exciting to listen to and to learn, even 20 odd years after highschool physics.

Brilliant, engaging and accessible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book.

Loved that it was narrated by Dr Becky herself.

Huge fan of her enthusiasm and drive to further knowledge in her field both publically and academically

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book good flow and heaps of good information. DR Becky keeps you entertained while giving you so much to take in. Highly recommended, looking forward to your next book. :)

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.