20210416 < Main

---+ April 16, 2021 7-9PM
*Event Type*: [[PublicLectures][Lecture and Stargazing]]<br>
*Title*: Endless Hunt for Black Holes<br>
*Lecturer*: Wenbin Lu<br>
*Position*: Postdoctoral Fellow<br>
*Institution*: Caltech<br>
*Abstract*: The existence of black holes is one of the most striking predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity, but it has been a century-long journey to test whether these bizarre objects are actually formed in our universe. This question has been investigated in several different ways: by considering the evolution and eventual collapse of massive stars; by observing stellar motion around a "dark mass concentration" at the center of our own galaxy; by examining X-ray and radio emission from gas falling into "dense massive objects"; by viewing light bent by the gravitational potential of free-floating "invisible objects"; and most recently, by collecting gravitational waves from colliding "compact massive binaries". I will show that black holes predicted by general relativity have passed all these checks with scrutiny, and then I will discuss what additional ways astronomers can further test the existence of black holes.<br>

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<img src="%ATTACHURLPATH%/20210416V.jpg" alt="20210416V.jpg" width="768" height="1024" />

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