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Astronomy 2e

For Further Exploration

Astronomy 2eFor Further Exploration

For Further Exploration

Articles

Carlisle, C. “The Face of a Black Hole.” Sky & Telescope (September 2019): 18. How the Event Horizon Telescope made an image of the shadow created by the event horizon of the supermassive black holes at the center of galaxy M87.

Klesman, A. “Glimpsing the Hearts of Galaxies.” Astronomy (March 2019): 58. On observing supermassive black holes in galaxies.

Kormendy, J. “Why Are There so Many Black Holes?” Astronomy (August 2016): 26. Discussion of why supermassive black holes are so common in the universe.

Kruesi, L. “Secrets of the Brightest Objects in the Universe.” Astronomy (July 2013): 24. Review of our current understanding of quasars and how they help us learn about black holes.

Nadis, S. “Exploring the Galaxy–Black Hole Connection.” Astronomy (May 2010): 28. Overview.

Nadis, S. “Peering inside a Monster Galaxy.” Astronomy (May 2014): 24. What X-ray observations tell us about the mechanism that powers the active galaxy M87.

Naeye, R. “How to Grow a Black Hole.” Astronomy (March 2021): 16. How the first supermassive black holes grew in early galaxies.

Nakamoto, D. “The Enigma that is BL Lacertae.” Sky & Telescope (September 2018): 30. On the prototype object that turned out to be a blazar (a strongly accreting quasar.)

Pacucci, F. “Early Black Holes: Distant Lights in the Darkness.” Sky & Telescope (May 2024): 20. On how JWST is discovering black holes in the early universe.

Peterson, B. “Solving the Quasar Puzzle.” Sky & Telescope (September 2013): 24. A review article on how we figured out that black holes were the power source for quasars, and how we view them today.

Talcott, R. “60 Years of Quasars.” Astronomy (November 2023): 17. Overview of the history of learning about them and what we know today.

Wanjek, C. “How Black Holes Helped Build the Universe.” Sky & Telescope (January 2007): 42. On the energy and outflow from disks around supermassive black holes; nice introduction.

Websites

Monsters in Galactic Nuclei: https://chandra.as.utexas.edu/stardate.html. An article on supermassive black holes by John Kormendy, from StarDate magazine.

Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei: https://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/agn/. An annotated gallery of images showing the wide range of activity in galaxies. There is also an introduction, a glossary, and background information, by astronomer William Keel.

Quasars: An Introduction on the Hubble Space Telescope site: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/science-behind-the-discoveries/hubble-quasars/. A brief primer, with links to Hubble announcements.

What We’ve Learned in 60 Years of Studying Quasars: https://www.astronomy.com/science/60-years-of-quasars/. A good summary article from Astronomy Magazine from 2023.

Videos

Black Hole Chaos: The Environments of the Most Supermassive Black Holes in the Universe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzSgU-3d8QY. May 2013 lecture by Dr. Belinda Wilkes and Dr. Francesca Civano of the Center for Astrophysics in the CfA Observatory Nights Lecture Series (50:14).

Hubble and Black Holes: https://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast43a/. Hubblecast video episode on black holes and active galactic nuclei (9:10).

Image of a Black Hole: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1907a/. Video about the Event Horizon Telescope and its pioneering image of the shadow of the event horizon in the active galaxy M87 (17:34).

Inside the Black Hole Image that Made History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyMtsyzXWd4. 2019 discussion with Shep Doeleman, the leader of the Event Horizon Telescope project that made the first image of the M87 black hole (11:29).

Monster Black Holes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN9oYjNKBm8. Popular lecture by Professor Chung-Pei Ma of the University of California, Berkeley; part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series (1:18:03).

Tour of Centaurus A: https://esahubble.org/videos/heic1110a/. HubbleCast #46: A visual guide to this relatively nearby active galaxy with a giant black hole at the center and evidence of a recent galaxy collision (4:01).

Tour of the Black Hole Jet in M87: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxC2jpugA9g. 2020 overview of the giant black hole in the galaxy, its jet, and the X-rays coming from it, plus the image taken with the Event Horizon Telescope (3:45).

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