Jan 20 2024 to Jan 20 2024 11 a.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

A black hole is an object whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from it. The concept of a black hole became rigorously established in physics once Einstein developed his general theory of relativity. However, the predicted properties of black holes are so bizarre that Einstein himself, and many other physicists, did not think that these objects could possibly be real. But over recent decades, astronomers have shown that black holes are not only real, there are actually huge numbers of them in our Universe, ranging in mass from a few times to billions of times the mass of the Sun. The talk will briefly summarize our current knowledge of black holes in the Universe.

Speaker

Ramesh Narayan Professor, Department of Astronomy, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian Harvard University

Ramesh Narayan is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University. He is an astrophysicist who is recognised for his wide-ranging research in the area of high energy astrophysics. He is known particularly for his work on black holes, where he has developed theoretical models of different modes of accretion and has used astronomical observations to elucidate the physical nature of both the accretion flow and the black hole. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society (London), the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The World Academy of Sciences. Using primarily theoretical methods, Narayan studies a variety of astronomical objects and phenomena to understand the physical processes at work. Research topics he has worked on include accretion disks, active galactic nuclei, black holes, galaxy clusters, gamma-ray bursts, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, image restoration, neutron stars, pulsars, and scintillation.