Description

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“[A] skillfully told history of the quest to find black holes.” —Manjit Kumar, Financial Times

Black holes are the best-known and least-understood objects in the universe. In Einstein’s Monsters, distinguished astronomer Chris Impey takes readers on a vivid tour of these enigmatic giants. He weaves a fascinating tale out of the fiendishly complex math of black holes and the colorful history of their discovery. Impey blends this history with a poignant account of the phenomena scientists have witnessed while observing black holes: stars swarming like bees around the center of our galaxy; black holes performing gravitational waltzes with visible stars; the cymbal clash of two black holes colliding, releasing ripples in space time. Clear, compelling, and profound, Einstein’s Monsters reveals how our comprehension of black holes is intrinsically linked to how we make sense of the universe and our place within it.

About the Author

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Chris Impey is a distinguished professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona and the critically-acclaimed author of Beyond, How It Began, and How It Ends, and four other books, as well as two astronomy textbooks. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Praise For…

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In Einstein’s Monsters, Chris Impey shows how modern astronomy has brought [black holes] into vivid focus, and conveys how much more we’re learning about these extreme beasts with every passing year.

— Sean Carroll, author of The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself