Dr. Herman Marshall, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute
| Jan/21 | Thu | 02:45PM-03:30PM | Marlar Lounge 37-252 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: none
The stellar binary SS 433 was once featured on Saturday Night Live as the "comin' and a-goin' star". By means that are still somewhat mysterious, the system ejects blobs of plasma in opposite directions at a speed of about a quarter of the speed of light. The compact object that is responsible for providing the impetus for this plasma is probably a black hole about 10 times the mass of the Sun. I show what we've come to understand about the system and its jets such as how their directions trace out twin cones on the sky. X-ray spectroscopy, using the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer that were built here at MIT, shows that the plasma temperature reaches at least 100 billion degrees and can be used to measure the density and location of the outflows we call jets.
Sponsor(s): Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research
Contact: Debbie Meinbresse, 37-241, 617 253-1456, MEINBRES@MIT.EDU