Astronomical Society of Greenwich Hosts Black Hole Lecture

From the Astronomical Society of Greenwich:

GREENWICH, CT - Nicholas Chamberlain Stone, PhD will present "Supermassive Black Holes: Behemoths in the Depths" Sunday, October 16, 2016 at 3:30 p.m.

In recent decades, astronomers have learned that the centers of most galaxies contain supermassive black holes, enormous objects between one million and ten billion times the mass of the Sun. Dr. Stone will discuss the phenomenology of these behemoths, explaining how (1) even though light cannot escape from their event horizons, supermassive black holes are nonetheless the brightest steady sources of optical and X-ray light in the universe; (2) these black holes appear to control the evolution of their host galaxies, despite being hundreds of times smaller, and (3) the occasional mergers of two supermassive black holes release an enormous luminosity in gravitational waves (ripples in the fabric of spacetime), temporarily outshining the entire combined electromagnetic luminosity of the observable universe.

However, there is much that we do not yet understand about supermassive black holes, and Dr. Stone will focus on one particularly stubborn puzzle: how did these giants come to exist in the first place? While many theories exist, we do not yet have a satisfactory answer.

Dr. Stone earned his PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics at Harvard University, and is currently a NASA Einstein Fellow at Columbia University’s Department of Astronomy. In addition to authoring scientific papers, Dr. Stone has given numerous lectures and been a participant at astrophysics conferences in the U.S. and overseas on various subjects, including: stellar mass black holes, supermassive black holes, gravitational waves, tidal disruption events, stellar dynamics, and relic exoplanetary systems.

Lectures are at The Bruce Museum and are open to the public. Admission is free to Bruce Museum members and ticket holders; others by donation to the Museum.

For more detailed information, visit our website.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.