Thursday, June 27, 2019 at 7 PM – 9 PM
Black holes have an interesting history. The concept of a black hole predates Einstein by over a hundred years, but our modern understanding of them follows from Einstein’s theory of gravity. However, Einstein himself and most physicists of his day didn’t believe black holes were even possible! Shane will describe what a black hole is and discuss the history of how black holes went from being viewed as a totally crazy idea to a bedrock of our modern understanding of astronomical phenomena. This includes two recent accomplishments: the observation of gravitational waves from colliding black holes and the first image of a black hole using a telescope the size of the Earth.
Dr. Shane Davis is a theoretical astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia. His main focus of research is to design computer programs to simulate how material falling into a black hole can emit light and be observed by astronomers on Earth.
Free and open to the public!
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