Where did the name 'black hole' come from?
Princeton physicist John Archibald Wheeler coined the term in the 1960s. At the time, these objects were little more than theoretical talking points, and no one had discovered any evidence that they really existed.
Other FAQs
Are any black holes close to Earth?
Will our Sun become a black hole?
What is the biggest black hole?
What happens when you get close to a black hole?
Are black holes 'doorways' to other parts of the universe?
Can anything ever escape from a black hole?
How many black holes are there?
How can a black hole's own gravity, but not light, escape from it?
Will our universe become a black hole?
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Basics
Black Holes: Stranger Than Fiction
Birth of Stellar-Mass Black Holes: Gravity's Victory
Birth of Supermassive Black Holes: Battle in the Bulge
Other Articles
An Apple a Day Keeps the Moon in Orbit
Faster than a Speeding Einstein
Squeezing the Life Out of a Star
Down the (Gravitational) Drain
More Than a Star, Less Than a Galaxy
A Black Hole by any Other Name
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