The Milky Way in X-rays: Searching for extreme objects in our own backyard

Astronomers estimate that there are nearly 100 million black holes in our galaxy, the Milky Way. So where are they? And what other extreme objects exist within our stellar metropolis? We typically see black holes when they're eating material from a partner star, and that infalling material heats up to millions of degrees to produce X-rays.  Similarly, neutron stars and white dwarfs in binary star systems are also capable of producing high-energy X-rays.   In the hopes of discovering more of these extreme objects, the remnants of once living stars, astronomers are following up on the faintest sources of X-rays detected.  To study them, astronomers rely on X-ray telescopes aboard satellites orbiting the Earth, as well as any available information from across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Speaker: Benjamin Coughenour, UC Berkeley

Stargazing starts after the lecture.