Black Holes Lurking Across the Milky Way
Michael Nowak
Fri Jan 20, 02-02:30pm, Marlar: 37-252
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
It was in 1967 episode (or stardate 3113.2) that Capt. Kirk and the Enterprise encountered an "uncharted black sun", and were hurled backwards in time. In the intervening 45 years, black holes have gone from things of science fiction to (nearly undisputed) scientific fact. This has been in large part thanks to a series of X-ray satellite missions which have discovered the emissions of hot gas plunging into and/or being expelled from the deep gravitational potential well of the black hole. In this talk I will highlight the discoveries we have made about black holes in our own Galaxy. I will describe how we have gone from merely discovering black holes to now attempting to study them in sufficient detail to determine whether or not the bending of spacetime close to the black hole predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity is actually occurring.
Web: http://space.mit.edu/home/nss/iap2012/iap_activities_2012.html
Contact: Norbert S. Schulz, NE80-6075, (617) 258-5767, nss@space.mit.edu
Sponsor: Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research
Latest update: 09-Dec-2011
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