Unraveling the Cosmic Melody of Black Holes

Supermassive Black Holes are awesome! But do you know what’s even more awesome?  Merging supermassive black holes! Black holes smashing together is one of the most powerful and weirdest phenomena in the universe, and astronomers want to measure where, when, and how often it happens. We can do this because when black holes merge they shake the universe a little bit, and emit gravitational waves. Because black holes merge all over the universe, these ripples in space-time are… everywhere. How can we not just detect them, but disentangle them? It turns out we can use the entire galaxy as a gravitational wave detector! We use the properties of pulsars, which are the spinning cores of dead stars located all around the Milky Way, to measure echoes of merging black holes across cosmic time. Using this technique to unravel the cosmic melody of black holes will help us learn all about galaxy and black hole evolution, and it’s also really awesome. 

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This winter, we will host our public physics talks in Flug Forum at Aspen Center for Physics. Join us starting at 5:00pm for tea and cookies before each talk. The talks will begin at 5:30pm sharp. There is free parking at the Center and in the neighborhood. We also recommend taking the Downtowner or the free RFTA Crosstown Shuttle.

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Please note that seating is first come, first served. We encourage you to arrive early at 5pm for tea and cookies before the lecture. Empty seats will be released at 5:20pm.

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