Black holes are fundamental to our understanding of modern astrophysics, yet the origin of this concept can be traced back to the writings of England's John Michell and France's Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1784 and 1796 respectively. Both independently postulated the existence of "non-luminous bodies", and while Michell used graphical methods to explain his concept, Laplace published a mathematical 'proof' in 1799.
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