Snacking, Gorging, and Cannibalization: The Feeding Habits of Black Holes

Dr. Steve Croft studies black holes using a wide range of telescopes, including Hubble, the Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory, Keck, and most recently the Murchison Widefield Array in the remote Western Australian outback. In this talk, Croft will share information about a new generation of telescopes with the capability to tell us about how black holes grow: by cannibalizing each other in stupendous mergers; by swallowing huge volumes of ten million degree gas; and by shredding and consuming stars that happen to pass too close.