Black Holes

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape. Despite their invisible interior, black holes reveal their presence by their overwhelming gravitational influence on surrounding matter.

At the centre of the black hole lies the ‘singularity point’, where matter is crushed to infinite density, the pull of gravity is infinitely strong and spacetime gets curved. It might even form the starting point of a spacetime bridge to another region of space and time, a wormhole, which at the other end would lead to the reverse of a blackhole, a white hole...
What happens inside real black holes? Are there really wormholes and white holes and therefore connections to other places and times? In his talk Andrew Hamilton will use a real-time, interactive general relativistic ‘Black Hole Flight Simulator’ to take you on a mind-blowing virtual journey from which there is no return ... or is there ?

Prof. Andrew J. S. Hamilton studied mathematics at Oxford, and subsequently obtained a PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Virginia. In 1986 he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is currently a Professor of Astrophysics, and a Fellow and Chair of JILA, one of the nation's leading research institutes in the physical sciences. He has broad interests in astrophysics, especially in the fields of cosmology and relativity. His scientifically accurate general relativistic visualizations of black holes have appeared in a number of TV documentaries.

Organised in co-operation with the FMF