Martin Wood Complex, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU
Professor Heino Falcke, Radboud University Nijmegen
Professor Heino Falcke, Radboud University Nijmegan, will be discussing the challenges of getting an image of a black hole, shielded as they are by an event horizon in this public lecture.
Black holes mark the most exotic objects within the theory of general relativity. Their interior is shielded from observation by an event horizon, a virtual one-way membrane through which matter, light, and information can enter but never leave. For a long time the immediate surroundings of black holes remained elusive and even their existence was doubted. In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) captured the first-ever image of a black hole, observing its dark shadow in the radio galaxy M87. In 2022, the black hole at the center of our Milky Way was imaged. This confirmed the presence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies and provided strong evidence for the presence of an event horizon. The talk will describe the road towards making these images, the latest results and directions, such as the construction of a new telescope in Africa and space missions.
Free admission, all welcome.