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StarTalk Radio

Black Hole Bonanza: StarTalk Live! With Janna Levin and Jenny Greene

May 23, 2023
01:30:03

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Supermassive black holes can be detected through gravitational lensing and studying the movement of stars and emission of x-rays.
  • Jets emitted from black holes are powered by electromagnetic energy and play a crucial role in shaping galaxy evolution.

Deep dives

Detecting Black Holes: Stellar and Supermassive

Black holes can be detected by observing the movement of stars around them, determining their mass, and studying the emission of x-rays from the surrounding accretion disks. Supermassive black holes, which have a mass of millions to billions of suns, are found at the centers of most galaxies. They can be detected through gravitational lensing, where their mass acts as a lens magnifying light from more distant objects. The James Webb Space Telescope has played a crucial role in detecting baby black holes in the nearby universe, providing insights into the formation of supermassive black holes. Pandora's cluster, a galaxy cluster in the Virgo supercluster, has been used to study early universe black holes through gravitational lensing.

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