Name: What’s Happening Around Black Holes?
Start: 2024-06-19T19:00:00+09:30
Location: Adelaide Planetarium - UniSA Mawson Lakes

$What\u2019s Happening Around Black Holes?$

Emeritus Professor Roger Clay
University of Adelaide
&
Jordan Ng
Glenunga International High School

Abstract: In 1939, Robert Oppenheimer was the first to realise that a collapsing star could become small enough such that light would not escape from it, because of its gravitational forces. Objects like this are usually called black holes. Details of their surface structure have been the topics of studies by some of the most famous astrophysicists – and are still often too complex for our mathematics to describe.
However, the region surrounding the black hole, its environment, can be understood with more conventional science and it has recently become possible to image this region. We will describe that environment near a black hole, how material falling in results in heat and rotation which can be recorded and studied using a telescope the size of the Earth – the Event Horizon Telescope. That region throws material and magnetism into the cosmos as we will illustrate using images from more well-known telescopes. Roger Clay is Emeritus Professor at the University of Adelaide and he has been working with Jordan Ng, a student at Glenunga, to understand these topics..

Bio: Emeritus Professor Clay’s research interests are in cosmic ray astrophysics, cosmic magnetic fields, and the urban heat island environment. In recent years he has been an active member of the Pierre Auger Collaboration which built and operates the world’s leading ultra-high energy cosmic ray observatory in Argentina. He was top Physics honours student at Imperial College and obtained his PhD there working with on radio emission from cosmic ray showers within the Haverah Park collaboration in Yorkshire, UK.
Moreover, Professor Clay has worked at the University of Adelaide since 1971, leading the High Energy Astrophysics Group, studying galactic astrophysics, and developing radiation instrumentation. He has served as Head of Department on a number of occasions and as Dean of Science, being a member of the Committee, which restructured the governance of the University of Adelaide. He was a Council member for the Astronomical Society of Australia for a number of years and served as President. Internationally, he was a Council member of Commission 4 of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. For a time, he was Australian spokesperson for the CANGAROO Collaboration with Japan. He was an advisor for the development of a research infrastructure roadmap for Germany and has advised the Australian Research Council a number of times.

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC PLANETARIUM SESSION
You must be a member or an invited guest of the Supernovas to attend ($5.00 per person entry fee).