Posted on Oct 31, 2023
In 'White Holes,' Carlo Rovelli takes readers beyond the black hole horizon
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https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/ [login to see] /book-review-carlo-rovelli-white-holes
Horizons are weird. They delimit what we can see in the distance, but they are also always personal: Walk 10 miles to the west and your horizon line moves 10 miles to the west with you.
Remarkably, this local, personal character of horizons also extends to black holes, the most enigmatic objects in the cosmos. Going beyond that horizon towards a new understanding of space, time and black holes is the principal goal of physicist Carlo Rovelli's wonderful new book White Holes.
"What happens at the center of a Black Hole?" is one of those questions I get whenever I tell someone I'm an astrophysicist — and it's the question that propels this book. Rovelli is unique among modern scientists who write for popular audiences in his ability to capture the purest essence of his science with both precision and lyricism. White Holes, like Rovelli's other works, is remarkably short — less than 200 pages. But the clarity of his explanations is unparalleled. As a scientist who is also a popularizer, I often find myself marveling at the acuity of his passages. More than just an ability to explain cutting edge ideas in physics, Rovelli's erudition and sensitivity lets him make contact with the broadest human yearnings for making sense of the world. This capacity is put to good use in White Holes, where the descent into a black hole is often narrated via quotes from Dante who made his own journey "down there in the blind world below."
Horizons are weird. They delimit what we can see in the distance, but they are also always personal: Walk 10 miles to the west and your horizon line moves 10 miles to the west with you.
Remarkably, this local, personal character of horizons also extends to black holes, the most enigmatic objects in the cosmos. Going beyond that horizon towards a new understanding of space, time and black holes is the principal goal of physicist Carlo Rovelli's wonderful new book White Holes.
"What happens at the center of a Black Hole?" is one of those questions I get whenever I tell someone I'm an astrophysicist — and it's the question that propels this book. Rovelli is unique among modern scientists who write for popular audiences in his ability to capture the purest essence of his science with both precision and lyricism. White Holes, like Rovelli's other works, is remarkably short — less than 200 pages. But the clarity of his explanations is unparalleled. As a scientist who is also a popularizer, I often find myself marveling at the acuity of his passages. More than just an ability to explain cutting edge ideas in physics, Rovelli's erudition and sensitivity lets him make contact with the broadest human yearnings for making sense of the world. This capacity is put to good use in White Holes, where the descent into a black hole is often narrated via quotes from Dante who made his own journey "down there in the blind world below."
In 'White Holes,' Carlo Rovelli takes readers beyond the black hole horizon
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."What happens at the center of a Black Hole?” is one of those questions I get whenever I tell someone I’m an astrophysicist — and it’s the question that propels this book. Rovelli is unique among modern scientists who write for popular audiences in his ability to capture the purest essence of his science with both precision and lyricism. White Holes, like Rovelli’s other works, is remarkably short — less than 200 pages. But the clarity of his explanations is unparalleled. As a scientist who is also a popularizer, I often find myself marveling at the acuity of his passages. More than just an ability to explain cutting edge ideas in physics, Rovelli’s erudition and sensitivity lets him make contact with the broadest human yearnings for making sense of the world. This capacity is put to good use in White Holes, where the descent into a black hole is often narrated via quotes from Dante who made his own journey “down there in the blind world below.”
The science question at the heart of Rovelli’s new book comes from his own research into the intersection of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. The former identifies gravity with the shape of space and time. The latter determines the behavior of the nanoworld — i.e., atoms and their constituents. Black holes are a crossing point for these two great theories because they’re places where gravity is so strong that space and time become distorted on quantum scales.
Black holes form when so much matter accumulates in one location that no force can stop its contraction via gravity. Imagine a star that has used up its nuclear fuel and no longer produces energy to support itself against its own weight (the own “shining” thing is a just a consequence of this battle). As the fuel runs out, gravity squeezes the star down to ever smaller sizes. At some point the dead star is so small and dense that light emitted from its surface cannot escape gravity’s pull. In the language of Einstein, the curvature of surrounding space-time is too extreme for light to escape. That’s when a horizon forms around the black hole. This “event horizon” marks the point of no return. Observers outside the horizon can never get any information about what’s inside the horizon (that’s why it’s called a horizon)."...
..."What happens at the center of a Black Hole?” is one of those questions I get whenever I tell someone I’m an astrophysicist — and it’s the question that propels this book. Rovelli is unique among modern scientists who write for popular audiences in his ability to capture the purest essence of his science with both precision and lyricism. White Holes, like Rovelli’s other works, is remarkably short — less than 200 pages. But the clarity of his explanations is unparalleled. As a scientist who is also a popularizer, I often find myself marveling at the acuity of his passages. More than just an ability to explain cutting edge ideas in physics, Rovelli’s erudition and sensitivity lets him make contact with the broadest human yearnings for making sense of the world. This capacity is put to good use in White Holes, where the descent into a black hole is often narrated via quotes from Dante who made his own journey “down there in the blind world below.”
The science question at the heart of Rovelli’s new book comes from his own research into the intersection of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. The former identifies gravity with the shape of space and time. The latter determines the behavior of the nanoworld — i.e., atoms and their constituents. Black holes are a crossing point for these two great theories because they’re places where gravity is so strong that space and time become distorted on quantum scales.
Black holes form when so much matter accumulates in one location that no force can stop its contraction via gravity. Imagine a star that has used up its nuclear fuel and no longer produces energy to support itself against its own weight (the own “shining” thing is a just a consequence of this battle). As the fuel runs out, gravity squeezes the star down to ever smaller sizes. At some point the dead star is so small and dense that light emitted from its surface cannot escape gravity’s pull. In the language of Einstein, the curvature of surrounding space-time is too extreme for light to escape. That’s when a horizon forms around the black hole. This “event horizon” marks the point of no return. Observers outside the horizon can never get any information about what’s inside the horizon (that’s why it’s called a horizon)."...
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