Introducing the black hole

JAN 01, 1971

According to present cosmology, certain stars end their careers in a total gravitational collapse that transcends the ordinary laws of physics.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3022513

Remo Ruffini

John A. Wheeler

The quasistellar object, the pulsar, the neutron star have all come onto the scene of physics within the space of a few years. Is the next entrant destined to be the black hole? If so, it is difficult to think of any development that could be of greater significance. A black hole, whether of “ordinary size” (approximately one solar mass, ${1 M}_{⊙}$ ), or much larger (around $10^{6} M_{⊙}$ to $10^{10} M_{⊙},$ as proposed in the nuclei of some galaxies) provides our “laboratory model” for the gravitational collapse, predicted by Einstein’s theory, of the universe itself.

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More about the authors

Remo Ruffini, Princeton University.

John A. Wheeler, Princeton University.