Gravity's Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe

Scientific American Library, 1998 Square 8vo (23.5 x 22 cm), VIII, 248 pp. Laminated wrappers. "Gravity is the dominant force in our universe. In Gravity's Fatal Attraction, two renowned astrophysicists explore gravity where it is infinitely strong: in black holes. These mind-boggling structures can have a mass up to billions of times that of our sun, but remain detectable only by the evidence of a powerful gravitational force swallowing everything in its vicinity. Gravity's Fatal Attraction describes how these massive, invisible objects were found and what their existence implies for the evolution of our universe. Updated to include the latest discoveries, and featuring superb illustrations and photographs, this account of black holes and the associated phenomena of quasars and cosmic jets reveals the workings of our strange and amazing universe." (publisher's synopsis)