Drawn to the Abyss

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

BLACK HOLES curve the fabric of spacetime so extremely that it rends. The superdense objects devour anything—even light—that strays too close, a trip from which there is no escape. Perhaps their most singular power, however, is their hold on our imagination. Learning more about these implacable gluttons offers the same shivery frisson as watching a stalking horror-movie creature while knowing we are safe in our cushioned seats.

As the authors in this special issue explain, black holes offer much more to science than the can’t-look-can’t-look-away spectacle of destruction. The forces they unleash shape the regions around them, providing clues to the evolution of stars and galaxies. For instance, the dark sinkholes reveal a surprising bright side. In their quest to solve an enduring mystery, astronomers have learned that black holes are responsible for some of the most dazzling fireworks in the universe. When a massive star collapses to birth a black hole, it releases a titanic pulse of radiation in a gamma-ray burst that can be seen from billions of light-years away, as Neil Gehrels, Luigi Piro and Peter J. T. Leonard discuss in their article, “The Brightest Explosions in the Universe,” starting on page 34. Greedily feeding supermassive black holes also exist in regions called starbursts, where stars are forming at a phenomenal rate. How? Turn to page 42 for “The Galactic Odd Couple,” by Kimberly Weaver.

Studying black holes yields insights into other mind-bending areas of physics. In the coming years the highest-energy particle accelerators on earth might be able to produce distant cousins of the astrophysical behemoths: microscopic black holes. They would explode immediately after they formed, giving clues about how spacetime is woven together and whether it has unseen higher dimensions, explain Bernard J. Carr and Steven B. Giddings in “Quantum Black Holes.” The article starts on page 20. Still other features in the issue explore what black holes can tell us about time travel, the nature of gravity, the ultimate amount of information the universe can hold and whether our seemingly 3-D reality is actually an illusion. So draw up that comfortable chair and get ready to learn more about one of the most awesome beasts in the universe.

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American