How did the study of black holes originate?

Answer 1

Mostly, the study of black holes is consequential to General Relativity. Black holes were described theoretically before evidence for their existence was collected from astronomical observations. 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 cause the falling object to approach the speed of light, and proposing the idea that light theoretically emitted by it would be unable to escape; but it wasn't until Einstein's General theory of Relativity (1915) that the framework of gravitation was in place and the reality of black holes could be described mathematically. Building upon Einstein's work, the effect of gravity on light was much better understood and solutions to his field equations yielded much more accurate models of black holes' properties and strong theoretical evidence for their existence. Observational evidence came later, and because black holes cannot emit light, the evidence was indirect, in the form of certain x-ray sources, relativistic jets, quasars or galactic nuclei, and orbital motion of massive bodies. Credit for discovery of the first strong black hole candidate in an x-ray binary system (Cygnus X-1) goes to Bolton, Murdin, and Webster in 1972.

Answer 2

The study of black holes originated from the early work of scientists like John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace in the 18th century speculating about the existence of "dark stars" with gravitational pull so strong that not even light could escape. The term "black hole" was coined by physicist John Archibald Wheeler in 1967 to describe these mysterious objects predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.