Lectures (Video)
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Planetary Orbits
- 3. Our Solar System and the Pluto Problem
- 4. Discovering Exoplanets: Hot Jupiters
- 5. Planetary Transits
- 6. Microlensing, Astrometry and Other Methods
- 7. Direct Imaging of Exoplanets
- 8. Introduction to Black Holes
- 9. Special and General Relativity
- 10. Tests of Relativity
- 11. Special and General Relativity (cont)
- 12. Stellar Mass Black Holes
- 13. Stellar Mass Black Holes (cont)
- 14. Pulsars
- 15. Supermassive Black Holes
- 16. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang
- 17. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang II
- 18. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang III
- 19. Omega and the End of the Universe
- 20. Dark Matter
- 21. Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe and the Big Rip
- 22. Supernovae
- 23. Other Constraints: The Cosmic Microwave Background
- 24. The Multiverse and Theories of Everything
Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics - Lecture 15
|
Get the Flash Player to view video.
Lecture 15 - Supermassive Black Holes
The lecture begins with a question-and-answer session about black holes. Topics include the extent to which we are sure black holes exist in the center of all galaxies, how massive they are, and how we can observe them. The lecture then turns to strong-field relativity: relativistic effects that are unrelated to Newtonian theory. The possibility of testing predictions of the existence of black holes is discussed in the context of strong-field relativity. One way we might learn about black holes is through observation of the orbit of the companion star in an X-ray binary star system. Through this we can estimate the mass of the compact object. The lecture ends with an explanation of how astronomers find black holes, and how Professor Bailyn was able to discover one himself.
Prof. Charles Bailyn
ASTR 160 - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Spring 2007 (Yale University: Open Yale) http://oyc.yale.edu Date accessed: 2009-05-12 License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA |
Lecture Material
To view the lecture material accompanying this lecture in a new window, please click the button below. If necessary, use the vertical or horizontal scrollbar in the new window to view more of the material or you can resize the window.
To download the above lecture material use this link. (Right-click and select Save Target As or Save Link As.)
Supplementary lecture material is listed below.