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Summary
Summary
"Get ready to S-T-R-E-T-C-H your mind! What is a black hole? Where do they come from? How were they discovered? Can we visit one? Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano takes readers on a ride through the galaxies (ours, and others), answering these questions and many more about the phenomenon known as a black hole. In lively and often humorous text, the book starts off with a thorough explanation of gravity and the role it plays in the formation of black holes. Paintings by Michael Carroll, coupled with real telescopic images, help readers visualize the facts and ideas presented in the text, such as how light bends, and what a supernova looks like. A BLACK HOLE IS NOT A HOLE is an excellent introduction to an extremely complex scientific concept. Back matter includes a timeline which sums up important findings discussed throughout, while the glossary and index provide a quick point of reference for readers. Children and adults alike will learn a ton of spacey facts in this far-out book that's sure to excite even the youngest of astrophiles."
Author Notes
"Get ready to S-T-R-E-T-C-H your mind! What is a black hole? Where do they come from? How were they discovered? Can we visit one? Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano takes readers on a ride through the galaxies (ours, and others), answering these questions and many more about the phenomenon known as a black hole. In lively and often humorous text, the book starts off with a thorough explanation of gravity and the role it plays in the formation of black holes. Paintings by Michael Carroll, coupled with real telescopic images, help readers visualize the facts and ideas presented in the text, such as how light bends, and what a supernova looks like. A BLACK HOLE IS NOT A HOLE is an excellent introduction to an extremely complex scientific concept. Back matter includes a timeline which sums up important findings discussed throughout, while the glossary and index provide a quick point of reference for readers. Children and adults alike will learn a ton of spacey facts in this far-out book that's sure to excite even the youngest of astrophiles."
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
Black holes -- the remnants of former massive stars -- may provide fascinating play for the imagination (especially for science fiction fans), but the physics behind them can be equally captivating, particularly when presented with the explanatory skills exhibited in this book. Complicated abstract ideas, such as gravity, electromagnetism, and relativity, are logically ordered and clarified in an inviting conversational style and with inspired uses of reasoning and analogies that are perfectly attuned to the comprehension levels of the target audience. DeCristofano starts with the intriguing title statement, then goes on to discuss the main feature of black holes (their immense gravitational "pull"); the conditions of their formation; the ways in which they capture light (the "black" in black hole); and the evidence and detection techniques used by scientists to determine where they exist. The well-designed layouts include illustrations of stars, black holes, and other space phenomena; historical images of astronomers; helpful diagrams; and humorous text bubbles that add levity while underscoring major concepts. Appended are a timeline, a glossary, an authors note, book and website resources, and an index. danielle j. ford (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Writing with rare verve (A black hole is nothing to look at. Literally.), DeCristofano condenses recent astronomical discoveries into a high-energy account of what we know or guess about one of the universe's deepest and most unobservable secrets. Covering the life cycles of stars; the formation of black holes and weird optical and physical effects associated with them; more recent revelations of super-sized black holes at the centers of galaxies; and the general effects of mass on space, light, and matter, she presents a clear, well-rounded picture of the strange structure and stranger physics of black holes. After leading a wild ride over a black hole's event horizon (Right away, you would need a new nickname something like Stretch . . . .) and explaining theories about gravity from Newton's notions to Einstein's Spacey Ideas, DeCristofano leaves readers to ponder the truth of her claim that a black hole isn't a hole but NOT exactly NOT a hole either. Enhanced by a time line and a generous set of further resources and illustrated with plenty of cogent diagrams, space photographs, and Carroll's dramatic images of stellar whirlpools and mammoth jets of gas around cores of impenetrable blackness this book will snatch readers from their orbits and fling them into a lasting fascination with nature's most attractive phenomena. Literally.--Peters, John Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-7-Gravity, quasars, the formation of black holes, and the meaning of event horizon are just some of the ideas covered in the impressive scope of this book (Charlesbridge, 2012). DeCristofano does a commendable job of introducing concepts that are difficult to visualize and making them accessible by providing examples with which students can identify. For example, the type of snow used in snowballs helps describe density of matter and whirlpools are used to explain the pull of black holes. Many scientists and their work are introduced including Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Grote Reber, a pioneer of the radio telescope. Ideas like a black hole being lumpy or smooth depending on the collapsing star it comes from and the concept of "spaghettification," the stretching out of objects, will intrigue students. The author's conversational tone and infusion of humor will hook listeners. Maxell Glick, Tara Sands, and Everette Plen provide well-paced narration; Plen makes occasional comic quips. There's a four-page glossary at the end that provides succinct definitions. Make sure to have the book available so listeners can peruse the illustrations, diagrams, charts, and photos.-C. A. Fehmel, St. Louis County Library, MO (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
(Nonfiction. 10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Introduction Have you heard the news? In outer space, mysterious entities called black holes seem up to no good. From the headlines, you'd think black holes were beasts with endless appetites, lying in wait for the next meal. By some reports they are "runaway," out-of-control "predators" that "feed" on galaxies, only to "belch" and "spit out" what they don't eat. They "lurk" in the shadows, "mangling" stars and "gobbling" them up. In short, they have a nasty reputation for being monsters "gone mad." But you know what? A black hole isn't a monster. It's not even alive. That means it can't lurk, eat, or belch. It has no dark, de-structive desires. Of course, you may have already figured this out. But you know what else? A black hole is NOT a hole--at least not the kind you can dig in the groundor poke your finger through. You can't just walk along and fall into one.A black hole isn't a hole like that. If a black hole is not a hole, then what in the universe is it? 1. Places with Pull A black hole is a place in space with a powerful pull. Way out beyond where you are right now, beyond the clouds, beyond the Moon, beyond Pluto, beyond our solar system, space goes on and on. You could travel for trillions of miles and you'd barely get to the closest star. In another few trillion miles you might pass an-other star. Space is that huge. Way out there, trillions, quadrillions, and even more -illions of miles away, are special places called black holes. These places in space are special because of their powerful pull on other things. A black hole's pull is the strongest pull in the entire universe. Nothing can out-tug a black hole. No army of tow trucks, no convoy of supersized earth haulers, no fleet of giant rocket engines. Not all of them combined. A black hole pulls in nearby dust. It pulls in nearby asteroids. It pulls in nearby stars and even nearby starlight. And no light, stars, asteroids, or dust comes out. Not ever. How Far Out Is Way Out There? Black holes are way out beyond where you are right now--much farther away than the edge of our solar system. To talk about the distance to a black hole, you'd need a huge number. How huge? Well, in your everyday life, you probably travel only a few miles (or kilometers). At most, you might go tens of miles. Longer trips might be in the hundreds or even thousands of miles. In outer space, these distances would seem smaller than baby steps. Out there, you'd need to stock up on zeroes to describe how far it is from one place to another. From Earth to the Sun: millions of miles or kilometers From the Sun to the next closest star: tens of trillions of miles or kilometers From Earth to the nearest black hole: tens of quadrillions of miles or kilometers Distance across our galaxy (Milky Way): hundreds of quadrillions of miles or kilometers Distance across the observable universe (which may be much smaller than the whole universe): sextillions of miles or kilometers In the universe, enormous distances separate even"close" neighbors. The Sun and Pluto, for instance, are a staggering 3,647,240,000 miles (5,869,660,000 kilometers) apart--yet that's just a hop, skip, and jump, astronomically speaking!(Sizes and distances in this diagram are not to scale.) Excerpted from A Black Hole Is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| 1 Places with Pull | p. 5 |
| 2 The Pulling Power of a Black Hole | p. 13 |
| 3 Black-Hole Beginnings | p. 19 |
| 4 The Blackness of Black Holes | p. 27 |
| 5 Mission Impossible? Seeking the Invisible | p. 33 |
| 6 Supersized Surprises | p. 39 |
| 7 Close Encounters of the Imaginary Kind | p. 49 |
| 8 Turning the Universe Upside-Down | p. 55 |
| Time Line | p. 62 |
| Glossary | p. 66 |
| Author's Note | p. 70 |
| Resources | p. 72 |
| Image Credits | p. 73 |
| Index | p. 74 |
