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The Century of Space Science pp 839–856Cite as

Black-hole binaries

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Abstract

The black hole is the most exotic object in the universe predicted as a direct consequence of general relativity. Research of stellar mass black holes dates back to 1939, when Oppenheimer and ***Snyder (1939) predicted the possible presence of black holes. They discovered that, based on general relativity, a sufficiently massive star would collapse indefinitely when all thermonuclear energy was exhausted and disappear inside a sphere of a limiting radius from which even photons could not come out (the “event horizon”). This limiting radius, called the Schwartzschild radius, equals twice the gravitational radius, r g (= MG/c 2, where M, G and c are the mass, the gravitational constant and the light velocity, respectively). Such an object is what is later called a black hole. However, black holes remained merely theoretical objects for a long time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching bei München, Germany and Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara Kanagawa-ken, Japan

    Yasuo Tanaka

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  1. Yasuo Tanaka
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  1. SRON — National Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Johan A. M. Bleeker

  2. ISSI — International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland

    Johannes Geiss

  3. ESA — European Space Agency, Paris, France

    Martin C. E. Huber

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© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Tanaka, Y. (2001). Black-hole binaries. In: Bleeker, J.A.M., Geiss, J., Huber, M.C.E. (eds) The Century of Space Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0320-9_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0320-9_36

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