Revealing the Heart of the Galaxy: The Milky Way and its Black Hole

by Robert H. Sanders

Written in an informal and engaging style, this volume traces the discoveries that led to our understanding of the size and structure of the Milky Way, and the conclusive evidence for a massive black hole at its center. Robert H. Sanders, an astronomer who witnessed many of these developments, describes how we parted the veil of interstellar dust to probe the strange phenomena within. We now know that the most luminous objects in the Universe – quasars and radio galaxies – are powered by massive black holes at their hearts. But how did black holes emerge from being a mathematical peculiarity, a theoretical consequence of Einstein's theory of gravity, to become part of the modern paradigm that explains active galactic nuclei and galaxy evolution in normal galaxies such as the Milky Way? This story, aimed at non-specialist readers and students and historians of astronomy, will both inform and entertain.

204 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2013

Reviews

[Mishehu · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a cosmos we live in. Whoddathunk that at the center of our very own galaxy there lurks a hole, occasionally feasting on stars or giving birth to them, belching gas and radiation, spitting jets of matter into the wider Milky Way. Revealing is the story of that hole -- of the many empirical and theoretical twists and turns, over a several decade period, that led to its definitive identification, and of what it means to have such an object in the neighborhood. It's a great and heady and challenging read -- mana for astrophysics junkies, dilettantes and specialists alike. How black is the hole at the center of our galaxy? Very black indeed, though not so black as you might imagine. Read this outstanding book and learn why.