Which scientist of the 1700's was the first to theorize about the existence of black holes?

Answer 1

In 1873, John Michell, a geologist, wrote a letter to Henry Cavendish, discoverer of hydrogen, suggesting a super-massive body whose gravity was so great that even light could not escape it. The letter was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society in 1784, and is a permanent part of their record.

Answer 2

No single astronomer is credited for discovering a black hole. But let's look at a bit of history behind this idea to see what's up.

The first person to set down the idea that a body having great mass and a small radius could have a gravitational acceleration greater than that of the speed of light was geologist John Mitchell. He wrote this in 1789 when penning a note to Henry Cavendish. The translation of this idea, by the way, is that a body of a given size and sufficient mass would have so much gravity that it would never let light escape it. We know now that a black hole is just such an astrophysical phenomenon.

After Mitchell, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Albert Einstein, Karl Swarzschild, Johannes Droste, Arthur Eddington, Georges Lemaître and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar all contributed ideas that lead to the current model of the black hole, each in his own turn. Astronomers have concluded that black holes exist in some locations based on the movement of visible objects (like stars) around an "invisible" gravitational source of considerable mass. To cite one example, the center of the Milky Way is believed to be the home of a supermassive black hole based on the observations of some stars nearby.

As black holes have such massive gravitation that even light cannot escape them, they cannot be observed directly. They can only be see by identifying the effects of their presence. Other than noting the motion of stars near a black hole, gravitation lensing is also a way the presence of a black hole can be inferred. A link can be found below to check facts and gather more information.

Answer 3

The possibility of black holes was mentioned by John Mitchel, about 200 years ago. The modern understanding of black holes started with calculations done by Mr. Schwarzschild, soon after the General Theory of Relativity was published. Actual discoveries are much more recent; it took a while for the scientific community to generally accept that objects such as Cygnus X-1 or Sagitarius A* are, indeed, black holes.

Answer 4

John Mitchell came up with the idea, some 200 years ago or so. However, our modern understanding of black holes started with the calculations of Karl Schwarzschild (based on the General Theory of Relativity). After that, several other scientists were involved, so it wasn't really just a single person.

Answer 5

John Mitchell, and later Pierre-Simon Laplace, first proposed (in the late 1700s) the idea of an object so massive that light would not escape from it. Scientists of the 1800s ignored this idea because they viewed gravity would have no effect on light.

Karl Schwarzschild was the first to use the mathematical equations of General Relativity to show that one solution would be mass so dense, causing so much warping of space, that no path for light to escape would exist. Both he and Einstein viewed the solution as a mathematical curiosity with no relevance to reality.

Scientists in the 1960s found both (1) theoretical solutions that would permit the existence of black holes and (2) observations that would be difficult to explain as anything but a black hole. By the mid 1970s their existence as described by Schwarzchild was accepted by most mainstream astronomers.

Answer 6

Several famous scientists have been involved in black holes. Schwarzschild for a start. A more recent one is Stephen Hawking. There were others, too, but I forgot the name. The Wikipedia article on black holes will give you a fe more names.

Answer 7

The philosopher and geologist John Michell in the late 18th century described what would happen to infalling matter approaching a body of a certain mass where it had sufficient acceleration from gravity to approach the speed of light, and proposing the idea that light theoretically emitted by it would be unable to escape. The name "black hole" wasn't applied until later; they were sometimes called "dark stars." Einstein's General theory of Relativity (1915) created the framework with a description of gravitation, and the reality of black holes could be described mathematically. Building upon Einstein's work, the effect of gravity on space was much better understood and solutions to his field equations yielded much more accurate models of black holes' properties and reinforced the theoretical evidence for their existence. The term "Black hole" first appeared in print in an article by Ann Ewing in "Black Holes in Space" published in 1964. Observational evidence came later when astronomers studied Cygnus X-1 in 1972.

Answer 8

Albert Einstein first discussed black holes in 1915 but he said that it was impossible for them to exist. Karl Schwarzschild is considered to be the man to prove the existence of black holes. Which he did in 1916.

Answer 9

Steven Hawking Karl Schwarzschild developed the concept of black holes in 1916 and American physicist John Wheeler coined the name "Black Hole" in 1968.

Answer 10

The first person to conceive of the idea was Pierre-Simon Laplace. However, they weren't really proven until Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose worked out the equations.