For years, black holes have captivated people's imagination.

What is this galactic abyss that traps matter and light and devours anything that falls into it? What are these dark zones that operate independently from our own universe and its laws? Can they be turned into time machines and open gates to parallel universes?

Black holes are objects that have collapsed gravitationally. They have a mass equal to millions or even billions of times the mass of the Sun, tightly compressed into a space no larger than our solar system.

In this book, which combines knowledge with entertainment, the author of "Time - A Traveler's Guide", Clifford A. Pickover, guides us through a world as fascinating as it is paradoxical. Starting each chapter with a fictional dialogue between two explorers experimenting with a black hole lost somewhere in space, the author presents in an understandable and enjoyable way a wide range of topics: from the structure of a black hole and its tidal forces, to quantum foam and wormholes in spacetime, to mathematical "black holes" and fractals. He answers the question of whether we could live inside a black hole and what scientists mean by the paradoxical phrase "black holes have no hair", while also providing original entertaining games with black holes.