Contents

  Acknowledgements xv

  List of illustrations xvii

  1 What is a black hole? 

  2 Navigating through spacetime 

  3 Characterizing black holes 

  4 Falling into a black hole . . . 

  5 Entropy and thermodynamics of black holes 

  6 How do you weigh a black hole? 

  7 Eating more and growing bigger 

  8 Black holes and spin-offs 

  Further reading 

  Index