Our February meeting was led by Ian and Ann Murray who had completed lots of in depth research into the topic of Black Holes and beyond.
The resulting PowerPoint presentation was outstanding with descriptive diagrams, explanations and linkages that made this complex area of physics more accessible.
Below is my attempt at a summary.
This is a Black Hole Sagittarius A* (at the centre of our Galaxy) which was discovered in 1974 and photographed in 2017.
‘Black holes, wormholes, and the event horizon are intriguing concepts in theoretical physics, largely explored by brilliant minds like Einstein, Hawking, Susskind, and Maldacena. A black hole is a region in space where gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape it, leading to an event horizon—the boundary beyond which nothing can return. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking made significant contributions, famously predicting that black holes can emit radiation, now known as Hawking radiation. Leonard Susskind and Juan Maldacena furthered our understanding of black holes through their work on string theory and the holographic principle, which states that all the information within a volume of space can be described by the information on its boundary.
Wormholes, theoretically predicted by Einstein’s general relativity, are hypothetical tunnels connecting distant parts of the universe, potentially allowing for faster-than-light travel ‘
Our thanks are extended to Ann and Ian for their preparation and presentation.
Next Month: March 21st
I am away on the u3a Melrose trip and Bob McEwen and John Tedstone are kindly leading the session this month which includes a presentation by John on an interesting group called ‘The Lunar Society’
David Rose