Lecture | Kaiser Spring Lecture
Zooming in on Black Holes with a telescope the size of planet Earth
- Date
- Saturday 12 March 2022
- Time
- Location
-
Old Observatory
Sterrenwachtlaan 11
2311 GW Leiden - Room
- Online and at the Old Observatory
Tickets: buy a ticket (€4) to attend the lecture at the Old Observatory
Live stream: find the link for the live stream (free) at the Kaiser Spring Lectures webpage
By combining the data observed by telescope at the highest sites around the world, the Event Horizon Telescope can zoom in on the extremely hot gas that is swirling around the super massive black holes that are found at the centres of galaxies. The image of the central object of the M87 galaxy, presented in 2019, shows a ring around a central dark region, the shadow of the black hole. In this talk these observations are explained, as well as how these measurements confirm Einstein’s theory for gravity. Besides the observations of M87, the EHT has also observed the black hole in the centre of our local Milky Way galaxy. The potential of observations of this nearby black hole will be introduced.
Huib van Langevelde is employed by the Joint VLBI institute in Dwingeloo and a professor at Leiden University. He is the project director of the Event Horizon Telescope Consortium.
This lecture will be in English.
Live attendance or live stream
The Kaiser Spring Lectures take place at the Old Observatory in Leiden! Tickets cost €4 per person and will be available on our website from Monday 14 February. Attending the lectures online is free, the link to follow the livestream will be available a few days in advance on our website and our socials.
Kaiser Spring Lectures: four Saturdays of Astronomy
Four Saturdays full of astronomy The Leiden Astronomical Dispute 'F. Kaiser' and the Oude Sterrewacht Leiden will again this year organise the Kaiser Spring Lectures, the annual series of lectures for the general public. Four experts from both Leiden University and other universities will come to the Old Observatory to give a lecture on a central theme to promote astronomy.