Chapter 33 tells us of the eponymous death by black hole, as the intense tidal forces tug differentially at your head and toes and you ultimately expire through ‘spaghettification’. Tyson explains, for example, why it takes light around million years to travel from the sun’s core out through the surface - even though the direct distance is only about 2.3 light seconds - and why the sun actually appears slightly smaller if you look at it in infra-red light. I found some of the other chapters particularly interesting.
The first chapter is particularly well devised, and describes what the heavens would like if our eyes could be retuned to see wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum – from the radio-bright galactic core to rare intense flashes of gamma-rays and the microwave glow of the cosmos itself. He writes on everything from the methods used in understanding the universe around us, to the interface between science and the public, and the role of religion. And this, his latest book, is an absolute delight to read.ĭeath by Black Hole is a compendium of articles Tyson has written in Natural History over the last four decades, it’s forty-two chapters organised into seven themed sections. It is fair to say then that Tyson not only knows his material, but he also knows how to communicate it skilfully to his audience. He is the director of the Hayden Planetarium here, and also writes regularly for Natural History museum. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist based at the American Museum of Natural History in New York city.
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