Session Date
Lesson Topic
How do we 'observe' black holes
Lesson Outline
We continued with black holes, and reviewed the concept that there are two main types of black holes in the Universe: Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, and stellar-mass black holes that result from the evolution of a massive star. Since black holes do not emit radiation (the escape velocity from inside a black hole has to be faster than light, and since nothing travels faster than light, nothing can be emitted from a black hole, the question is how do we know they're there? For supermassive black holes, such as the one at the center of the Milky Way, we can follow the tracks of individual stars as they zip around the black hole, and - knowing the masses of the stars (through spectral classification) and using Kepler's equations, we can calculate the mass of the unseen object. In the case of stellar-mass black holes, we need to find one in a binary system with a 'normal' star, and through the motion of the normal star, we can deduce the mass of the unseen companion.
Assignment
None. Jared worked very hard in class today.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Jared was again very attentive throughout the class, and asked all the right questions. His interest in the pure physics of the Universe appears to have grown exponentially over the past few weeks. He has completed his assignment from over the weekend, but we have not yet reviewed it (I still need to see the movie 'Interstellar' - it was the first question Jared asked me when I walked into class, but sadly my weekend was a bit too busy to go see it - I will go as soon as possible, Jared almost cannot contain his excitement regarding how much material in the movie was directly related to what we're covering in class). He had done a lot of independent research over the weekend regarding the Rosetta mission to the comet, the Higgs boson, and the meteorite shower of last night and tonight.
Session Hours
1.00
Hours Attended
1.00
Entry Status
Review Status
Student Name(s)
Subject
School