This chapter discusses the Schwarzschild black hole. It demonstrates how, by a judicious change of coordinates, it is possible to eliminate the singularity of the Schwarzschild metric and reveal a spacetime that is much larger, like that of a black hole. At the end of its thermonuclear evolution, a star collapses and, if it is sufficiently massive, does not become stabilized in a new equilibrium configuration. The Schwarzschild geometry must therefore represent the gravitational field of such an object up to r = 0. This being said, the Schwarzschild metric in its original form is singular, not only at r = 0 where the curvature diverges, but also at r = 2m, a surface which is crossed by geodesics.
