[8] Some of Luminet's literary works have been translated into other languages, such as Chinese, Korean, Bengali, German, Lithuanian, Greek, Italian or Spanish.

In 1979, Luminet got a permanent research position at the CNRS and developed his scientific activities at Paris Observatory until 2014, before joining the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille.

In 1978, Luminet created the first "image" of a black hole with an accretion disk, using nothing but an early computer, math, and India ink.

In 1982, along with physicist Brandon Carter, Luminet invented the concept of a Tidal disruption event (TDE), the destruction of a star passing in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole.

It explains the superluminous supernova SN 2015L, the tidal explosion of a white dwarf before being absorbed beneath a massive black hole.

In 2003, large scale anomalies in the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background observed by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe led to Luminet suggesting that the shape of the universe is a finite dodecahedron, attached to itself by paired opposite faces, forming a Poincaré homology sphere.

This work for six percussionists, based on magnetic tape and astronomical signals coming from pulsars,[citation needed] is regularly performed around the world.

[17] Composed of an ensemble of 16 soloists, large orchestra, and electronics, the piece describes an Utopian voyage through a giant black hole.