Gravity's Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos [Hardcover]

Caleb Scharf (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 7, 2012 | ISBN-10: 9780374114121 | ISBN-13: 978-0374114121 | Edition: 1ST

One of The Barnes and Noble Review Editors’ Picks: Best Nonfiction of 2012

Selected by The Christian Science Monitor as one of “21 smart nonfiction titles we think you'll enjoy this summer”

Selected by The New Scientist as one of 10 books to look out for in 2012


We’ve long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end. Often billions of times more massive than the Sun, they lurk in the inner sanctum of almost every galaxy of stars in the universe. They’re mysterious chasms so destructive and unforgiving that not even light can escape their deadly wrath.

Recent research, however, has led to a cascade of new discoveries that have revealed an entirely different side to black holes. As the astrophysicist Caleb Scharf reveals in Gravity’s Engines, these chasms in space-time don’t just vacuum up everything that comes near them; they also spit out huge beams and clouds of matter. Black holes blow bubbles.

With clarity and keen intellect, Scharf masterfully explains how these bubbles profoundly rearrange the cosmos around them. Engaging with our deepest questions about the universe, he takes us on an intimate journey through the endlessly colorful place we call our galaxy and reminds us that the Milky Way sits in a special place in the cosmic zoo—a “sweet spot” of properties. Is it coincidental that we find ourselves here at this place and time? Could there be a deeper connection between the nature of black holes and their role in the universe and the phenomenon of life? We are, after all, made of the stuff of stars.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Scharf makes vivid the mind-boggling nature of the universe . . . [there are] bright beams of knowledge coming from this excellent book.”
—Wall Street Journal

“To call this an absorbing read is an understatement. I felt dreamily transplanted . . . When I did emerge from the book to look up at the summer stars, the night seemed more brightly lit, slightly more known but also more awesome, more wonderfully strange.”
—The Barnes and Noble Review

“With Gravity’s Engines, Caleb Scharf establishes himself as one of the finest space storytellers.”
—The Christian Science Monitor

“Using rich language and a brilliant command of metaphor, [Scharf] takes on some of the most intricate topics in theoretical and observational astronomical research. He weaves a wonderfully detailed tapestry of what modern astronomy is all about, from the complexities of cosmic microwave background studies to the X-ray mapping of galaxy clusters.”
—Nature

“[H]eady stuff, but luckily for readers . . . who lack a deep understanding of cosmology, Scharf populates his book with images and colorful metaphors.”
—The Chronicle of Higher Education

“[A]n excellent overview of the state of black hole research . . . to explain why black holes are so important, Scharf provides a tour of much of modern astronomy and cosmology along with some requisite history, an impressive feat for such a relatively short book.”
—Ars Technica

“The subtitle of this most readable book about supermassive black holes exemplifies Scharf’s playful tone...Highly recommended. Teen and adult fans of astronomy, as well as scientists looking for ways to explain black holes to nonscientists, will all enjoy this text.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“Scharf’s explanations are vivid and accessible, evoking the awe of cosmic grandeur in a way that’s as humbling as it is fascinating.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Scharf is a writer you’ll gladly follow to the end of the universe.”
—Zocalo Public Square

“[S]tunning. I can’t remember when I last read a popular science book where I learned as much I hadn’t come across before.”
—Popular Science Book Review (five stars)

“In Gravity’s Engines, Caleb Scharf deftly tells you all you wanted to know about Black Holes, as well as all you never knew you wanted to know. By the end of the book your conclusion will surely match mine: Black holes are terrifying yet awesome constituents of the cosmos.”
—Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, author of Space Chronicles and Death by Black Hole

“Superbly accessible . . . Scharf’s breathtaking cosmic vision will appeal to anyone whose curiosity is aroused by gazing at a star-filled sky.”
—Booklist

“An intelligent explanation of a weird but essential feature of the universe . . . rich, satisfying.”
—Kirkus

“Scharf provides a virtuosic history of the universe . . . he also serves as an appealing tour guide to the eerie, infinite corridors of the cosmos in which we reside.”
—Prospect (UK)

About the Author

Caleb Scharf is the director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center. He writes the Life, Unbounded blog for Scientific American; has written for New Scientist, Science, and Nature, among other publications; and has served as a consultant for the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, The New York Times, and more. Scharf has served as a keynote speaker for the American Museum of Natural History and the Rubin Museum of Art, and is the author of Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology, winner of the 2011 Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award from the American Astronomical Society. He lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1ST edition (August 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780374114121
• ISBN-13: 978-0374114121
• ASIN: 0374114129
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Caleb A. Scharf is Director of Astrobiology at Columbia University, and has an international reputation as a research astrophysicist, and as a lecturer to college and public audiences. The UK's Guardian newspaper has listed his blog Life, Unbounded, as one of their "hottest science blogs," while an editor at Seed Magazine called it "phenomenal. Informed, fresh, and thoughtful." Scharf is author and co-author of more than 100 scientific research articles in astronomy and astrophysics. His work has been featured in publications such as New Scientist, Scientific American, Science News, Cosmos Magazine, Physics Today, and National Geographic, as well as online at sites like Space.com and Physorg.com. His textbook for undergraduate and graduate students, Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology, has been called "the gold standard" for the field. His articles and reviews have appeared in such prestigious publications as Science, Nature, The Astrophysical Journal, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Dr. Scharf is a regular keynote speaker at academic meetings, such as for the American Physical Society, museums, and both public and private venues, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. He has been a guest on Krulwich on Science at NPR, William Shatner's "Weird or What?" and has served as a consultant to editors and producers at National Geographic Magazine, The Science Channel, The Discovery Channel, and The New York Times.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating View of the Universe August 18, 2012

By J. Groen VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a fascinating view of the universe, including our part of it. The book focuses on "black holes" those parts of the universe that are the most dense and the most energy productive. Every galaxy, including the Milky Way, our galaxy, has a black hole in the middle of it. Around the black hole, there exists the most concentrated grouping of stars which in many instances are "buzzing around the black hole" at tremendous speeds and then circle around the black hole until they are swallowed by it, much like a drain does with water. When this happens, an explosion occurs and energy is released in the form of radioactive gas, protons and neutrons that spews out thousands of light years into the universe.

These are called black holes because they appear that way in the universe because they are so dense that no light escapes from them. They are billions of times more dense and powerful than our sun. Since there at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe with at least 100 billion stars in each (think about those numbers, they are mind boggling), there are least that number of black holes. These black holes perform a key role in the universe creating and re-creating the universe through the creation and destruction of stars and galaxies.

Most of the book is spent discussing the exploration of these monsters, both nearby (our galaxy and others within millions of light years from us) to billions of light years away. The author mentions one galaxy and black hole that he was involved in the discovery of that is 12 billion light years away from us. (The interesting thing is that they found this galaxy and black hole as it looked 12 billion years ago...) A picture is shown of these and other galaxies with their black holes in their middle.

It just happens that our galaxy and black hole are just right for life. The black hole in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy is hungry, destroying and creating a couple of stars each year, but not too destructive. This results in positive change in our galaxy that supports life on its fringes where our Sun and earth exist. The author goes into some detail on this explaining how important this is to life on earth.

At the end, the author actually gets somewhat poetic, and the prose is very uplifting and positive. The universe is a beautiful creation and these monsters, black holes, are key to the creation and continuation of this beauty. The pictures in the book just increase the value of the writing and thoughts provided. In fact, I like this book so much, that after purchasing the Kindle version, I plan on buying the hard copy (only the 2nd time this year that I have done that), so that I can offer this to others to read. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the universe and astronomy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Light Weight April 8, 2013

By bmbower

Format:Hardcover

However I did learn a few new things. For instance, one of the reasons astronomers observe jets of x-rays and other forms of energy shooting above and below the disk of a spiral galaxy is because the super massive black hole spinning at the center warps space into an enormous eddy. The eye of the storm, so to speak, is the only channel of escape.

But I had to wade through galaxies of fluff and silly analogies to get there. The fluff most likely arises from the maxim that you lose readers when you include equations. As a result there are none in this book. Even worse, the author strives to avoid anything that sounds too sciency. Yes we get extended descriptions about matter crashing into itself to create the energy we can see, but no scientific explanation of how that energy is actually produced and why it is not sucked in by gravity. We also learn that "[s]uper computer simulations" of baby galaxy mergers "can create enormous whirlpools of turbulence." But nothing about the simulation inputs or how they work nor the nature or extent of the turbulence.

Then there is the writing. As another reviewer says, Scharf's analogies are all over the place. Many of them are at odds with the grandiose tone he sets in the first few chapters. Galaxies are eggs. Super hot gas clouds are water in a bowl then - in the same paragraph - partially successful soufflés. Meanwhile he is inconsistent in trying to express the scale of the universe. He tells us 10 million years (or light years when referring to distance) is tiny compared to the age and size of the universe. Then he later says the time it takes to travel between two cosmological elements is greater than all recorded human history, which I guess is around 5,000 years - yet the analogy suggests he is trying to awe us with this even tinier distance.

There are other issues as well. (E.g. the histories of radio astronomy and x-ray astronomy are underdeveloped.) But the bottom line is that Scharf simply does not have the writing chops of Brian Greene or Michio Kaku or the creativity of Kip Thorne (whose spaceship-to-a-black hole conceit worked extremely well at the start of Black Holes and Time Warps). All too bad really, as I like the idea of focusing on gravity and the role of black holes in shaping the look of the universe rather than on black holes per se. This book just does not deliver on the promise.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 42 December 2, 2012

By FictionFan

Format:Hardcover

'What I'd like you to take away from Gravity's Engines is both a sense of the cosmic grandeur we have discovered and a feel for the great scope and ingenuity of human ideas at play.' So says Caleb Scharf in his introduction to this very accessible account of the current thinking on black holes, how they formed and the effect they have on the universe.

Scharf starts with the stirring story of photons journeying across space and time bringing with them the information that scientists are using to reveal the answers to the questions of how the universe works. He then takes us back to the earliest days of scientific enquiry describing some of the people, experiments and discoveries that have led, stage by stage, to our current understanding of the impact that black holes have on the formation of galaxies, stars and perhaps even of life on earth itself.

As someone with zero scientific education and knowledge, I found on the whole that Scharf's use of analogy made the complex concepts relatively(!) easy to follow, while his style of writing and boundless enthusiasm made this a fascinating and enjoyable read. There were parts where he nearly lost me, when he explained some of the science around the more difficult theories, but without in any way 'dumbing down' he managed to clarify and simplify things enough to allow me to follow him on this exhilarating journey.

Perhaps not the complete answer to life, the universe and everything but a pretty good stab at it; and, as Scharf intended, I am left in awe of these massive and mysterious 'dark stars' and of the scientists who have gone so far towards understanding and explaining them. Highly recommended.