30th Hintze Lecture: Professor Janna Levin & Professor Sir Roger Penrose

Professor Janna Levin from Columbia University and Professor Sir Roger Penrose from University of Oxford will be giving the 30th Hintze Lecture.

Abstract:

Black holes are the most outrageous inhabitants of our universe, as well as the most elusive. Black holes are dark. That’s their essence, the defining feature that earned them a name. They are dark against a dark sky. They are a shadow against a bright sky. Ironically, the darkest conceivable phenomenon can power the brightest astronomical beacons. Black holes can cannibalize stars to shine brilliantly across the observable Universe. They are as small as cities or as enormous as solar systems. There are possibly a billion dead stars that collapse to black holes in our own Milky Way galaxy. And there is one supermassive black hole looming at the centre, millions of times the mass of the Sun, as old as the galaxy itself. Each of the trillions of galaxies is host to billions of black holes and to one anchoring supermassive black hole. They are plentiful. And profound. They are impenetrable behind event horizons, inert and impassive, and yet they tease the promise to reveal the theory of everything. Black holes define our history, having sculpted the galaxies in which life emerged, and prescribe our ultimate fate, eventually absorbing everything they can before ultimately evaporating into oblivion.

The Hintze lectures highlight contemporary developments in astrophysics and cosmology and are generously funded by the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation. In this 30^th anniversary event, join Professor Janna Levin in conversation with Professor Sir Roger Penrose, discussing the nature of black holes.

Join us in-person or online

This public lecture is free to attend in person (no prior registration required; attendees to be seated by 4.50pm) and will also be livestreamed at the following link: https://zoom.us/j/91528581365