“The Warped Side of Our Universe: An Odyssey through Black Holes, Wormholes, Time Travel, and Gravitational Waves” by Kip Thorne, Lia Halloran

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

A fascinating layman’s level approach to explaining about black holes, time warps and warped space. Kip Thorne summarizes much of what he and other researchers now know (and don’t know) about them, while also indulging in some speculative thought experiments about the consequences such objects would have in our universe.

But speculation remains speculation, unless there is a way to gather objective evidence about it. Here, Thorne talks about his work in getting the massive LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) up and running, and detecting the gravity waves generated when black holes and other massive celestial objects collide and merge. He also talks about plans for even more massive gravitational wave detectors and can detect the signatures of supermassive black holes and maybe even the gravitational waves generated during the first moments of the Big Bang.

Along with the text are illustrations by Lia Halloran that help put down in images what Thorne is saying.

This is a short but deeply descriptive book about the nature of black holes and warped space that contains up-to-date information about what is currently known about them.

Book read from 2024/02/12 to 2024/02/14