Dad – Bill Nelder philosophising on Cleeve Hill, Gloucestershire, UK
My dad’s favourite sitcom was Last of the Summer Wine. As old as the Yorkshire hills they were set in – Holmfirth – Cleggy, played by Peter Sallis, uttered a profound astronomical observation in episode 5, season 6 (1982). While relaxing on a grassy hillside, he said that outer space was largely a vacuum, or a giant hole, yet along come astronomers and put black holes in it! How can that work?
He has a point. On the face of it how do you have holes in something that is already a cosmic hole?
The thing is, outer space isn’t really a vacuum, although nearly so. Recent studies show that there are thousands of atoms per cubic metre of mostly hydrogen in interstellar space. Also, black holes are not really holes but superdense gravity wells which drag stuff into them as if they were holes.
Speaking of holes, I am grateful to Martin Lamberti (international clown and acrobat) who sent me this link to a 1955 old cartoon. Hilarious https://www.b98.tv/video/hole-idea/
Nelder’s books in chronological order:
Escaping Reality – humorous thriller • http://hyperurl.co/nyjaiv
Hot Air – thriller set in Mallorca • http://hyperurl.co/di4y0h
ALIEN EXIT a science fiction first-contact novel as an ebook only https://mybook.to/alienexit
ARIA: Left Luggage – infectious amnesia scifi • smarturl.it/1fexhs
ARIA: Returning Left Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/tgtid6
ARIA: Abandon Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/26trxv
The Chaos of Mokii ebook at https://mybook.to/Kaos
Revised Xaghra’s Revenge set in present-day and 16th Century Malta and Gozo now retitled as Vengeance Island http://mybook.to/VIsland
Incremental – 25 surreal short stories • http://mybook.to/Incremental which contains a hole story – Pothole
Suppose We -science fiction space exploration • https://mybook.to/SupposeWe
Kepler’s Son https://mybook.to/KeplersSon
Vanished Earth https://mybook.to/VEKindle
