Physics Colloquium - Spring 2006 - Inside Story of a Black Hole and Other Dark Matters of the Cosmos
Dept of Physics & Astronomy
University of Maine, Orono, Maine
Presents
Dr. Mark P. Silverman
Professor of Physics
Trinity College
Inside Story of a Black Hole and Other Dark Matters of the Cosmos
Stars, like living organisms, have lifetimes of various durations. The death of a star can be a spectacular event, leading to the outflow of enormous quantities of energy and to exotic end states of unimaginably high density. The strangest state of all is a black hole in which the pull of gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, and the laws of physics, as they are currently known, may appear to fail. (When a ball of matter of more than 2 million million million million million kilograms-the mass of the Sun-is predicted to collapse to a size many powers of ten smaller than the full stop at the end of this sentence, one might conclude that/ something/ in physics is not working out right.) This lecture is about some of the strangest denizens of the cosmos...red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes...and how, in the last case, the laws of physics may be saved.
Friday, April 21, 2006
3:10 pm
140 Bennett Hall
Refreshments will follow in Rm. 114, Bennett Hall
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