Virtual Astronomy Night at MSU-St. Andrews!

Quasars, Active Galaxies,
and Supermassive Black Holes

(Radio Astronomy Part II)

Wed, January 8, 2025, 7 PM EST

MSU-St. Andrews STEM Center (Virtual only)

Register To receive the Zoom link:

https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_d219bSCYS7mXQbdTv-dwgw

Did you know that most radio point-sources in the sky come from far beyond our Milky Way—from distant galaxies of their own?  Were you aware that the radio signals from these galaxies show structures that can be dozens of times larger than the host galaxies themselves?  How is that possible?  Radio astronomers have also identified quasars, which are at once the most distant objects in the universe, as well as the brightest—even brighter than supernovas!  What do these amazing things have in common?  They are all believed to be powered by supermassive black holes!  Have you heard that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy?  Well, then why is our black hole so much fainter than the ones in distant galaxies and quasars, which can be thousands of times brighter than our entire galaxy?  Are you aware that radio astronomers have recently obtained actual images of supermassive black holes?  Join Dr. Edmund Stark and the MSU-St. Andrews STEM Center by Zoom to learn more!

Adults and families with school-age or older children are invited to join MSU-St. Andrews virtually for a presentation on quasars, active galactic nuclei, and supermassive black holes.  We will show you amazing radio images of truly massive features, much larger than the galaxies that contain them.  We will examine powerful particle jets, gigantic gas plumes, and hot spots than can reach trillions of degrees—most of which are completely invisible in “normal” light!  Along the way, we will describe some of the extremely clever techniques in radio astronomy, like interferometry and aperture synthesis, so that you can understand what radio telescopes actually do.  We will even show off recent radio images of black holes themselves!  Perhaps more importantly, we will discuss what the details of these images tell us about polarization, magnetic field lines, and modern theories about how black holes might work.

Plus, we will also talk about what we actually can see, with ordinary visible light, in the beautiful nighttime skies of January.  The Great Square of Pegasus is still in the sky, pointing the way to Andromeda, Perseus, Cetus, and more, but now a new landmark has arisen:  brilliant Orion, which points the way to all the constellations in the Winter Hexagon, like Taurus, Auriga, and Gemini.  Winter skies have the brightest constellations of the year; don’t miss them!  Plus, Jupiter is visible all night, Venus shies brightly at sunset, Saturn is also out in the early evening, and Mars comes out later at night.  We will show you how to find all these things (and more) for yourself.

Presentation (virtual only) on Wed, January 8, 2025, 7 PM EST