The Science of Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's 2014 film Interstellar was eagerly awaited by science fiction enthusiasts who, having been sorely disappointed so many times by movies that crossed the line into fantasy by making up entirely implausible things to move the plot along, hoped that this effort would live up to its promise of getting the science (mostly) right and employing scientifically plausible speculation where our present knowledge is incomplete.The author of the present book is one of the most eminent physicists working in the field of general relativity (Einstein's theory of gravitation) and a pioneer in exploring the exotic strong field regime of the theory, including black holes, wormholes, and gravitational radiation, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2017. Prof. Thorne was involved in the project which became Interstellar from its inception, and worked closely with the screenwriters, director, and visual effects team to get the science right. Some of the scenes in the movie, such as the visual appearance of orbiting a rotating black hole, have never been rendered accurately before, and are based upon original work by Thorne in computing light paths through spacetime in its vicinity subsequently published as professional papers.Here, the author recounts the often bumpy story of the movie's genesis and progress over the years from his own, Hollywood-outsider, perspective, how the development of the story presented him, as technical advisor (he is credited as an executive producer), with problem after problem in finding a physically plausible solution, sometimes requiring him to do new physics. Then, Thorne provides a popular account of the exotic physics on which the story is based, including gravitational time dilation, black holes, wormholes, and speculative extra dimensions and “brane” scenarios stemming from string theory. Then he “interprets” the events and visual images in the film, explaining (where possible) how they could be produced by known, plausible, or speculative physics. Of course, this isn't always possible—in some cases the needs of story-telling or the requirement not to completely baffle a non-specialist with bewilderingly complicated and obscure images had to take priority over scientific authenticity, and when this is the case Thorne is forthright in admitting so.Sections are labelled with icons identifying them as “truth”: generally accepted by those working in the field and often with experimental evidence, “educated guess”: a plausible inference from accepted physics, but without experimental evidence and assuming existing laws of physics remain valid in circumstances under which we've never tested them, and “speculation”: wild and wooly stuff (for example quantum gravity or the interior structure of a black hole) which violates no known law of physics, but for which we have no complete and consistent theory and no evidence whatsoever.This is a clearly written and gorgeously illustrated book which, for those who enjoyed the movie but weren't entirely clear whence some of the stunning images they saw came, will explain the science behind them. The cover of the book has a “SPOILER ALERT” warning potential readers that the ending and major plot details are given away in the text. I will refrain from discussing them here so as not to make this a spoiler in itself. I read the book before seeing the movie, and when I did I enjoyed it more for having read the book, since I knew what to look for in some of the visuals and was less likely to dismiss some of the apparently outrageous occurrences by knowing that there is a physically plausible (albeit extremely speculative and improbable) explanation for them.There are a few typographical errors and one factual howler: Io is not “Saturn's closest moon”, and Cassini was captured in Saturn orbit by a propulsion burn, not a gravitational slingshot (this does not affect the movie in any way: it's in background material).

Noble prize winning Kip Thorne back at it again with yet another Great book. This book has alot of pictures to help with the concepts. Get book to go along side the movie. Great quality i wish it came in hardcover but the paperback is build well.

I love Kip Thorne's ideas and am really looking forward to reading his book on "The Science of Interstellar". Also, loved the movie..big fan. Just got the book delivered by Amazon (the driver even rang the doorbell) packaged in a very flimsy mailer. The spine has a hole in it and there are dents on the front cover. Had the company simply boxed it or even put the book inside decent bubble wrap this would not have happened. Will not use this seller again. But, I am very much looking forward to the book!

This book is amazing! Interstellar is my favorite movie, and this was the perfect book to "nerd out" with and dive deeper into the scientific theories used to develop the film. It is super interesting and very easy to understand. Kip has a way of making even the most complex theories easy to understand through his writing and illustrations .

Great book explaining all the science behind the movie. However in the book there are some conflicting claims about the properties of black holes that should be cleared up. In Chapter 5 on Black Holes on page 45, Dr. Thorne writes "First, a weird claim: Black holes are made from warped space and warped time. Nothing else - no matter whatsoever." Then in Chapter 6 on Gargantuan's Anatomy on page 57, Dr. Thorne writes "If we know the mass of a black hole and how fast it spins, then from Einstein's relativistic laws we can deduce all the hole's other properties:". If there is no matter whatsoever in a black hole, how can we calculate the mass? The equation w (weight, matter) = m (mass) x g (gravity) doesn't hold since Einstein's relativistic laws are used to calculate the mass where m (mass) = c2 (speed of light squared) / E (energy). I think this should have been made clearer with some simple examples and calculations to reduce confusion for the average person between mass and matter and where and how the Energy is measured for a black hole. I do like the quote about black holes to indicate that there are no extra, independent properties beyond its mass and spin on page 57: "A black hole has only two hairs, from which you can deduce everything else about it." One question though, what about non-spinning black holes, are these just "single hair" black holes? I also really like Dr. Thorne's labeling of the status of the science for Interstellar on page 33 where "T" stands for Truth (green), "EG" stands for Educated Guess (purple), and "S" stands for Speculation (red) and this is labeled in color at the beginning of a chapter or section so the reader is aware of where science stands today on the particular subject in the movie. Overall a great book on black holes and explaining all the science behind the movie which couldn't be explained well in the movie's limited time. Well worth the read and furthering of science education.