High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The study of black holes, gravitational sources so massive that even light cannot escape from them, goes back to the late 18th century. Major advances in understanding were made throughout the first half of the 20th century, with contributions from many prominent mathematical physicists, though the term black hole was only coined in 1964. With the development of general relativity other properties related to these entities came to be understood, and their features have been included in many notable works of fiction.