The Edge of Infinity: Supermassive Black Holes in the Universe

by Fulvio Melia

This timely book is suitable for the general reader wishing to find answers to some of the intriguing questions now being asked about black holes. Although once recognized as the most destructive force in nature, following a cascade of astonishing discoveries, the opinion of supermassive black holes has undergone a dramatic shift. Astronomers are discovering that these objects may have been critical to the formation of structure in the early universe, spawning bursts of star formation, planets, and even life itself. Fulvio Melia is Associate Head of Physics and Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He is author of Electrodynamics (University of Chicago, 2001), and a forthcoming title, The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy (Princeton).

Genres: Science

158 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2003

About the author

Fulvio Melia is an Italian-American physicist/astrophysicist and author. He is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Arizona and Associate Editor of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. A former Presidential Young Investigator and Sloan Research Fellow, he is the author of six books and more than 230 articles on theoretical astrophysics.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Aroosha Dehghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

سال گذشته تصویری منتشر شد با این عنوان «اولین عکس سیاهچاله».
با چشم‌پوشی از این که ما از خود سیاهچاله عکس نگرفتیم و از سایه‌ش عکس‌برداری کردیم، باید گفت که این یکی از بزرگ‌ترین پیشرفت‌های بشر در علم نجوم بود. کلی از دانسته‌های قبلیمون رو تایید کرد و کلی پرسش‌های تازه در ذهنمون پدید آورد که باید بریم دنبال پاسخش. سیاهچاله‌ها یکی از قدرتمندترین و ناشناخته‌ترین اجرام جهان هستند و بی‌تردید آینده‌ی علمی بشر در گرو شناخت بیشتر اون‌هاست.
همزمان با این بمب خبری خیلی‌ها بودن (و هستن) که کنجکاو شدن برای شناخت بیشتر و بهتر سیاهچاله. اگر شما هم جز اون دسته افراد بودید باید اعلام کنم که خیلی خوشبختید که من رو دارید چون دارم کتابی رو معرفی می‌کنم که دقیقا مناسبتونه. 😎😏
این کتاب برای پاسخگویی به سوالات مخاطب عام درباره‌ی سیاهچاله‌ها نوشته شده؛ از ساده‌ترین مباحث تا دشوارترین‌ها. این کتاب نیاز به پیش‌دانسته‌های زیادی نداره ولی اگر چیزهایی بدونید قطعا بهتر مطالبش رو درک می‌کنید. پس اگر دوست داشتید، پیش از شیرجه زدن تو کتاب کمی درباره‌ی مکانیک کوانتومی، نسبیت، نظریه‌ی میدان‌های کوانتومی و تابش هاوکینگ بخونید.

[Nick Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit more poppy than I'd have liked from Cambridge University Press, but overall the best (if slim) introduction to massively high-energy stellar objects, the mid-range black hole enigma, and esoterica of general relativity (frame dragging, the importance of the Kerr metric, tachyonic jets etc). I was pleased to see Melia's not afraid to introduce time/space signatures and dilation of the metric early, and use these results to explain what other pop authors leave behind. There's a fair bit of repetition, especially for such a small volume, but this is offset by an absolutely terrific inquiry into the determinism of space dimensions and constraints placed upon them by the Hierarchy problem (incredible weakness of gravity compared to QCD/QED) -- this gives rise to the very core of the Planck energy's definition, in a stellar (pun not intended) exposition. Melia covers some extraordinary experiments in astrophysics I was unaware of -- the maser-based measurement of NGC4258's AGN mass, Jansky's accidental discovery of radio astronomy at Bell Labs (not to be confused with Penzias and Wilson, four decades later) -- and the book's cost is covered by his dense references to very current literature.

~20 beautiful color plates, most of which you'll have seen before.

Amazon 2008-12-17. Found in the "Further Reading" section of Wikipedia's (fairly decent) page on quasars, this book looks good and was available cheaply used -- let's try this, players.

[Sanjay Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Supermassive Black Holes in the Universe. Well done discussion about the most powerful and least understood objects in the universe. Learned that there is a possibility that the universe itself is a black hole and that the end of everything, and meaning everything, is 10^98 (thats a 1 with 98 0's following) years away.