Stony Brook University
7:30 pm; ESS Building, Room 001
Friday, September 06, 2019
Our First Look at the Black Hole
Prof. Doug Swesty
Recently, the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration revealed our first direct glimpse at the event horizon of a black hole. This is incredible news for astrophysicists as it has taken over a century, from the time that black holes were first predicted as a consequence of Einstein's theory of gravity, until we were finally able to get a direct view of one. In this talk I will discuss what a black hole is, how the idea of one was originally discovered, and how we finally, in 2019, have been able to see one directly.
Prof. Swesty received his PhD in Physics from SUNY Stony Brook in 1993. He spent six years at the University of Illinois as a postdoctoral researcher and as a Visiting Assistant Professor. He returned to Stony Brook in 1999 where he is currently a Research Associate Professor. His work focuses on nuclear astrophysics and computational astrophysics.
