The Black Hole Explorer and the Edge of the Universe
At the Museum | Farrand Auditorium
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) brought us the first image of a black hole in 2019, stunning the world and making the unseeable seen for the first time. This image is only the beginning of what staring into black holes can reveal. Beneath the famous fuzzy orange donut lies a bizarre and unique substructure of orbiting light, called the photon ring, that is too narrow to be seen with the Earth-sized EHT. This photon ring is a doorway marking the edge of the universe and can reveal secrets about its past, its present, and its ultimate demise in the distant future. To see this photon ring for the very first time, researchers are building the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX), a space observatory that will connect to the EHT to create a virtual telescope three times larger than the Earth. The Black Hole Explorer will take us right up to the edge of the universe. Come to a live presentation from local astrophysicist and BHEX project contributor Joseph Farah and learn when this project is launching and what the team expects to see.
Joseph Farah is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in astrophysics at UC Santa Barbara, studying supernovae and black holes under Andy Howell, Ph.D., as part of the Las Cumbres Observatory. At LCO, Joseph’s work focuses on characterizing the continuum of stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae, as well as developing and maintaining the infrastructure used for their follow-up and classification. He is a member of the Event Horizon Telescope and Black Hole Explorer collaborations, and has made key contributions to the first and second images of a black hole, as well as our understanding of the photon ring, under the supervision of Michael Johnson, Ph.D., and Prof. Alex Lupsasca, Ph.D. For his work on black hole physics, Joseph was named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, a co-recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and the winner of the 2021 LeRoy Apker Award.
Talk starts at 7:30 PM and seats are limited, so show up early if you want to be sure of a seat. No tickets or reservations required.
This event is part of a monthly series of free astronomy talks presented by Santa Barbara’s astronomy club, the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit (SBAU). Look for more talks and free Star Parties with the SBAU on the Museum’s astronomy calendar.
Questions? Contact Ila Jade Komasa at ijadekomasa@sbnature2.org or 805-682-4711 ext. 164.
