Katherine Blundell is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at St John's College, Oxford. Her research interests include extreme energy phenomena in the Universe, including black holes, astrophysical jets, relativistic plasmas, and active galaxies. She has published extensively on these matters with over 150 papers in academic publications and is frequently invited to speak at conferences and different institutes around the world. She has founded the Global Jet Watch project to make round-the-clock observations of how matter behaves in the vicinity of black holes, with observatories established in schools in South Africa, Chile, India and Australia. In 2017 she received an OBE for services to astronomy and the education of young people.

In this Very Short Introduction, Katherine Blundell looks at the seemingly paradoxical, mysterious, and intriguing phenomena of astrophysical black holes. Outlining what a black hole actually is and how they are characterised, she separates the scientific fact from science fiction, and demonstrates the interesting role they play in the cosmos.

Black holes are a constant source of fascination to many due to their mysterious nature. In this Very Short Introduction, Katherine Blundell addresses a variety of questions, including what a black hole actually is, how they are characterized and discovered, and what would happen if you came too close to one.

She explains how black holes form and grow - by stealing material that belongs to stars, as well as how many there may be in the Universe. She also explores the large black holes found in the centres of galaxies, and how black holes give rise to quasars and other spectacular phenomena in the cosmos.

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