EPISODE · Aug 10, 2018 · 37 MIN
Episode 16: Einstein at the Heart of the Galaxy
from syzygy · host Chris Stewart
Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Find us on Twitter: @syzygypod twitter.com/SyzygyPodOr just visit us at home: syzygy.fmEmily at the University of York: www.york.ac.uk/physics/people/brunsden/Chris online: kipstewart.com———————————Some of the things we talk about in this episode:TESS update: https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/Paper about the stars at the galactic core: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2018/07/aa33718-18/aa33718-18.htmlArticle about the research: https://www.universetoday.com/139701/einstein-was-right-again-successful-test-of-general-relativity-near-a-supermassive-black-hole/Video about the research: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1825a/Video of the orbiting stars: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TF8THY5spmoEinstein’s General Theory of Relativity: https://www.newscientist.com/round-up/instant-expert-general-relativity/The Very Large Telescope: http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/vlti.htmlA visit to the VLT: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BXIA5r9r29ITests of General Relativity: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity
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What this episode covers
There’s a monster deep in the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. Even though we can’t see it, we know it’s there ... because it has to be. Over two decades, astronomers have pointed very large telescopes, including The Very Large Telescope, toward the galactic centre. They’ve been tracking the motions of a bunch of stars right at the core — ordinary stars doing something extraordinary. They’re moving fast, very very fast, in orbit around something very massive. But when astronomers look to find what’s at the centre of these stars’ orbits ... there’s nothing there. The only real possibility is that they are orbiting a super-massive black hole. At their fastest, some of the stars are moving at a few percent of the speed of light, which is fast enough to put Einstein’s theory of relativity to the test.
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Episode 16: Einstein at the Heart of the Galaxy
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