Venkatessh Ramakrishnan (University of Concepcion, Chile)

Venkatessh Ramakrishnan Colloquium: First Images of a Supermassive Black Hole

Marsfield lecture theatre

Abstract

This talk will present the transformational science enabled by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to study the physics of, and near, the supermassive black holes. Apart from introducing to the EHT, the presentation will include the latest result from the study of the black hole in M87, the process of making high-resolution images, the importance and implication that these results entail. The talk will also cast light on the extension of these findings to a sample of galaxies covering a large parameter space in SMBH mass, accretion rate, and jet power.