Durante largo tiempo los agujeros negros vivieron solo en las pizarras de los físicos teóricos. Pero en las últimas décadas se han obtenido pruebas irrefutables de su existencia: son lugares en los que la gravedad se hace tan extrema que se produce una profunda distorsión del espacio y el tiempo hasta hacerlos irreconocibles, vacíos capaces de atrapar en su interior cualquier masa, incluida la luz.

Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and World War I Europe, Zoya, young cousin to the Tsar, flees St. Petersburg to Paris to find safety. Her entire world forever changed, she faces hard times and joins the Ballet Russe in Paris. And then, when life is kind to her, Zoya moves on to a new and glittering life in New York. The days of ease are all too brief as the Depression strikes, and she loses everything yet again. It is her career, and the man she meets in the course of it, which ultimately save her, as she rebuilds her life through the war years and beyond. And it is her family that comes to mean everything to her. From the roaring twenties to the 1980's, Zoya remains a rare and spirited woman whose legacy will live on.

The International Bestseller On April 10, 2019, award-winning astrophysicist Heino Falcke presented the first image ever captured of a black hole at an international press conference—a turning point in astronomy that Science magazine called the scientific breakthrough of the year. That photo was captured with the unthinkable commitment of an intercontinental team of astronomers who transformed the world into a global telescope. While this image achieved Falcke’s goal in making a black hole “visible” for the first time, he recognizes that the photo itself asks more questions for humanity than it answers. Light in the Darkness takes us on Falcke’s extraordinary journey to the darkest corners of the universe. From the first humans looking up at the night sky to modern astrophysics, from the study of black holes to the still-unsolved mysteries of the universe, Falcke asks, in even the greatest triumphs of science, is there room for doubts, faith, and a God? A plea for curiosity and humility, Light in the Darkness sees one of the great minds shaping the world today as he ponders the big, pressing questions that present themselves when we look up at the stars.

In a time of spectacular developments in the new astronomy, the concept of black holes captures top honors. As scientific evidence for them mounts, black holes loom as an ominous development in the life, measured in billions of years, of the universe.

Richly illustrated with the images from observatories on the ground and in space, and computer simulations, this book shows how black holes were discovered, and discusses our current understanding of their role in cosmic evolution. This second edition covers new discoveries made in the past decade, including definitive proof of a black hole at the center of the Milky Way, evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, and the new appreciation of the connection between black holes and galaxy formation. There are entirely new chapters on gamma-ray bursts and cosmic feedback. Begelman and Rees blend theoretical arguments with observational results to demonstrate how both approaches contributed to this subject. Clear illustrations and photographs reveal the strange and amazing workings of our universe. The engaging style makes this book suitable for introductory undergraduate courses, amateur astronomers, and all readers interested in astronomy and physics.

This self-contained textbook brings together many different branches of physics--e.g. nuclear physics, solid state physics, particle physics, hydrodynamics, relativity--to analyze compact objects. The latest astronomical data is assessed. Over 250 exercises.

Un viaje extraordinario a los límites del tiempo, el espacio y la mente humana, de la mano de Heino Falcke, galardonado con la Medalla Henry Draper 2021. El 10 de abril de 2019 un equipo internacional de astrónomos liderados por el profesor Heino Falcke maravilló al mundo publicando la primera imagen de un agujero negro. Por fin la comunidad científica conseguía la prueba irrefutable de lo que Einstein había predicho en su teoría de la relatividad acerca de estos fenómenos hacía más de cien años. Sin embargo, las implicaciones de este hallazgo van más allá: si bien son objetos relativamente simples de definir, los agujeros negros plantean algunos de los interrogantes más complejos sobre la naturaleza del espacio, del tiempo, y, por último, de nuestra existencia. En este libro, Falcke no solo nos narra la emocionante historia de esta proeza científica, sino que da un paso más intentando responder a las grandes preguntas filosóficas que este hito plantea: ¿existe algo más allá de la nada?,¿puede la ciencia explicar lo inexplicable?, ¿cuál es el origen de nuestra existencia y qué sentido tiene nuestro paso por el mundo? Para Heino Falcke, la astrofísica y la metafísica, la razón y la fe, no tienen por qué excluirse mutuamente. La luz en la oscuridad esun poderoso alegato a favor de la ciencia que nos habla de lo que sabemos pero también de los misterios que quedan por resolver.