Black Holes Explained

Plot

This course is comprised of 12 30-minute lectures on two DVDs, with an accompanying study guide. Black holes are regions of space in which gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. They are frequently referred to in popular culture; this course explains what they are and their ramifications. Imagine a region in space where the force of gravity is so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape. A region with physical conditions so extreme that they have not yet been reproduced in any terrestrial laboratory. A region so dense that an object as tiny as a walnut would have the same mass as our entire planet. 12 lectures 1 A General Introduction to Black Holes 2 The Violent Deaths of Massive Stars 3 Gamma-Ray Bursts—The Birth of Black Holes 4 Searching for Stellar-Mass Black Holes 5 Monster of the Milky Way and Other Galaxies 6 Quasars—Feasting Supermassive Black Holes 7 Gravitational Waves—Ripples in Space-Time 8 The Wildest Ride in the Universe 9 Shortcuts through the Universe and Beyond? 10 Stephen Hawking and Black Hole Evaporation 11 Black Holes and the Holographic Universe 12 Black Holes and the Large Hadron Collider