Agujeros negros : Un misterio cósmico por fin desvelado

Behind the name "black holes"—a term that fuels the collective imagination—lie celestial bodies that are conceptually very simple yet extremely difficult to study. They are simple by definition: objects capable of trapping light within themselves. They are difficult to study, on the one hand, because they are the site of extreme gravitational phenomena and, on the other, because—by their very definition—black holes are nearly impossible to observe. Alain Riazuelo, an astrophysicist and CNRS researcher, presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date study on black holes, featuring numerous visual simulations and incorporating the remarkable observational breakthroughs of recent years: the first two images of black holes (M87* in 2019 and Sgr A* in 2022), the surge in detected black hole mergers (rising from five in 2018 to over eighty today), and a full overview of global ground- and space-based projects launched to further accelerate discoveries in this field.