 Softcover edition | |
| Author | Kip Thorne |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Physics,cosmology |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company |
Publication date | November 7, 2014 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 336 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0393351378 |
| Preceded by | Black Holes and Time Warps(1994) |
The Science of Interstellar is a non-fiction book by American theoretical physicist andNobel laureateKip Thorne, with a foreword byChristopher Nolan. The book was initially published on November 7, 2014 byW. W. Norton & Company.[1][2] This is his second full-size book for non-scientists afterBlack Holes and Time Warps, released in 1994.The Science of Interstellar is a follow-up text for Nolan's 2014 filmInterstellar, starringMatthew McConaughey,Anne Hathaway, andJessica Chastain.
Kip Thorne was the scientific consultant and an executive producer for the movie. In this book he explains the scientific concepts behind the film's cosmological ideas.[3] The book is composed of seven parts with aforeword byChristopher Nolan and one additional chapter discussing the inception ofInterstellar. Thorne starts by laying out introductory information about theuniverse,spacetime, physical laws,relativity,tidal forces, andblack holes. The next section covers thesupermassive black hole Gargantua, explaining itsappearance and how it was created viaCGI, as well asgravitational slingshots and a scientifically inaccurate statement by a character in the film. Thorne then shifts to Earth, discussing the crop-destroyingblight, development ofinterstellar travel technologies, and another scientifically inaccurate statement in the film. The next part discusses thewormhole, explaining the basics of how wormholes work, how Interstellar's wormhole was rendered via CGI, and a method by which the wormhole could have been discovered in Interstellar's universe via the detection ofgravitational waves. Thorne then explores the development ofplanets orbiting a supermassive black hole and how the planets depicted in the film could form in real life. The next section discusses some of the more advanced and extreme physics depicted in the film, includinglarge extra dimensions, warping thegravitational constant, and the different types ofsingularities inside a black hole, including theBKL,mass-inflation, andshock singularities. The final part discusses the climax of the film, including Cooper's plunge into the black hole Gargantua, thetesseract scene andfour-dimensional space, and gettingcolonies of people off of the Earth.
