Black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the Universe. Stellar black holes are, to put it briefly, the remnants of massive stars that have reached the end of their life cycles and collapsed into a region of spacetime that is incredibly dense. The gravitational force is so strong that nothing - not even light - can escape its surface, and the laws of time and space become warped.

Ever since they were predicted about a century ago, astronomers and astrophysicists have struggled to learn more about these strange and mysterious objects. This has been no small feat, and has required the dedication and efforts of generations of scientists. More questions remain than answers. But what they have learned so far has already revealed much about the Universe we live in and the laws that govern it.