Public Lecture
Finding Baby Black Holes with James Webb
Jenny Greene
Princeton University
Wed, Jul 1, 5:30–6:30pm
Which came first, the black hole or the galaxy? And how did black holes grow to be billions of times the mass of our Sun? Astronomers have made remarkable progress in answering these questions in the past five years, in large part thanks to the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope. I will discuss how the mysterious “Little Red Dots” discovered by James Webb may ultimately reveal the origin of supermassive black holes.
About Jenny Greene
Jenny Greene is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. She studies supermassive black holes and the galaxies that they live in. As an observer, she uses facilities all over the world and in space to find black holes at all masses and redshifts, but also to study the masses, structures, and star formation histories of their hosts. She is also the faculty director of the Princeton Prison Teaching Initiative, and recently was awarded a Presidential award for Science Mentoring from the Biden administration for her work.
Heinz R. Pagels Public Lecture Series
Heinz R Pagels was a professor of physics at Rockefeller University, president of the New York Academy of Science, a trustee of the Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Center for Physics for twenty years, serving as a participant, officer, and trustee. He was also President of the International League for Human Rights. His work on chaos theory inspired the character of Ian Malcolm in the Jurassic Park book and movies. A part-time local resident, Professor Pagels died here in a mountaineering accident in 1988. His family and friends instituted the lecture series in his honor because he devoted a substantial part of his life to effective public dissemination of scientific knowledge.
Other Upcoming Events
Through the Looking Glass: the Mystery of Antimatter
Wed, Jun 24, 5:30–6:30pm
Flug Forum, Aspen Center for Physics
How Aspen Changed the World of Science
Wed, Jul 8, 5:30–6:30pm
Flug Forum, Aspen Center for Physics
Pushed by Sound: Moving Objects Too Small to See
Wed, Jul 15, 5:30–6:30pm
Flug Forum, Aspen Center for Physics