Just one month after Einstein worked out the last kinks in his theory of
general relativity in 1915, what may be the most perplexing
consequence of the theory was discovered: the black hole. It was
utterly misunderstood by its discoverers, by Einstein himself, and by
most other researchers, but not by all. A half-century later, the black
hole acquired its name, once its fundamental nature had finally been
widely understood. That set the stage for a second half-century of
astonishing discoveries: the role black holes play in the universe and
at the foundations of physical theory, as well as a new set of perplexing
puzzles they pose for today's researchers.
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