We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
From the author to the reader
Why this book is about gravity
During the 35 years that I have done research in gravitation, I have watched with amazement and delight as my colleagues in astronomy have, step-by-step, opened up almost the entire Universe to our view. And what a view! There are punctures in space called black holes that capture gas and stars with a relentless and unbreakable grip; there are 10km balls called neutron stars that are immense overgrown atomic nuclei with more mass than our Sun, that spin about their axes hundreds of times per second while emitting intense beams of radiation; there are bursts of gamma-rays from the most remote regions of the Universe that are so intense that they outshine the rest of the Universe for a short time; and most strikingly of all there was the beginning of time itself in an explosion of pure energy, driven by a force we do not understand, in which matter as we know it did not exist, in which even the laws of Nature themselves were mutable.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
