Black holes and galaxies: A love-hate relationship

Black holes do not spend their lives alone in empty space.  It is now known that, at the center of almost every galaxy, there is an enormous black hole, with a mass billions of times the mass of the Sun.  This black hole pulls in and sweeps away gas from the center of the galaxy.   This coupling of the black hole and the galaxy  causes the pair to evolve hand-in-hand.  In the right circumstances, it liberates huge amounts of energy, giving rise to the brightest objects in the universe.  In this lecture, SLAC astrophysicist Silvia Bonoli will describe the torrid relationship of black holes and galaxies as each shapes the life of the other.

Speaker: Silvia Bonoli, SLAC