Presented on ZOOM Public Lecture July 14th at 7pm
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
“Stars destroyed by black holes and the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed”
Scientists believe that an explosion, known as AT2021lwx, is the result of a vast cloud of gas, possibly thousands of times larger than our sun, plunging into the inescapable mouth of a supermassive black hole. The cloud of gas may have originated from the large dusty “doughnut” that typically surrounds black holes – although it is not clear what may have knocked it off course from its orbit and down the cosmic sinkhole.
AT2021lwx is not the brightest phenomenon ever witnessed. A brighter gamma-ray burst, known as GRB 221009A, was spotted last year, but this event lasted only minutes. By contrast, the new event is still going strong, meaning the overall energy release is far greater.
Dr. Phil Wiseman will talk about these and other amazing phenomena in this talk.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr Phil Wiseman
Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton.
Dr Philip Wiseman has been awarded the prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship. The honour recognises the most promising early-career particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics researchers in the UK and supports them to develop their careers and push the boundaries of their field. Philip’s award will support him to search for cosmic explosions and to understand what causes them.
The most energetic explosions and flares in the Universe signal the deaths of stars and the violent growth of black holes. Recent all-sky telescope surveys have revealed a handful of extremely bright, long-lived flares from supermassive black holes on scales never seen before. Why they occur and how they become so bright is unknown.
Philip will search for many more of these eruptions to understand what causes them, providing new insights into how black holes grow and how they sculpt the centres of galaxies.
Dr Phil Wiseman leads team witnessing the largest cosmic explosion caused by giant black hole.