The mystery that is a black hole
On Thursday (22 August), the Namibia Scientific Society plays host to a public talk in English by Prof Sera Markoff titled Observing the unobservable: a black hole primer.Black holes are one of the strangest byproducts of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity: objects so compact that not even light can escape.
This oft-cited fact makes them sound a bit dangerous, but also somehow passive. Surprisingly, black holes contribute actively to, and interact with, their environments, via material that is ejected from just outside their event horizons.
The effect of these interactions is an area of active study, and can even influence star formation and the growth of the galaxies on the largest scales in the Universe.
To test General Relativity and to better understand the important role of black holes, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) global array of radio dishes began operations in 2017, and has been observing annually most years since.
In this lecture, Prof Markoff introduces black holes and covers the state-of-the-art in what we have been learning about them from the EHT. She will also discuss the key expansion project of the EHT array via a new facility in Namibia, the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT).
Originally from the US, Prof Markoff is full professor of theoretical high-energy astrophysics and astroparticle physics at the University of Amsterdam. She is a founding member of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (EHTC) and its Science Council, where she served most recently as Vice-Chair, and as of 2024 is member of its new governing Science Board. She is also a member of the next-generation Cherenkov Telescope Array Consortium, building on the H.E.S.S. facility in Namibia.
The talk starts at 19:00.