RASC Vancouver Monthly Meeting - Annual Paul Sykes Memorial Lecture
Details
Join us for our monthly meeting. All of our monthly meetings are free and open to the public.
Location: Zoom and YouTube (link to our YouTube channel below; look for the livestream there)
Topic: Creating Black Holes with Dark Matter at Cosmic Dawn
Speaker: Sophia Gad-Nasr, Science Advisor and Dark Matter Hunter
Bio: PhD student in Cosmology at University of California, Irvine
Abstract: At the heart of every large galaxy lies a black hole millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. These supermassive black holes are found too early in the Universe's history to be explained by conventional mechanisms: their formation remains a mystery.
The answer may lie in yet another of the Universe's mysteries: dark matter. A substance six times as abundant as normal matter, dark matter is everywhere and holds galaxies together. If dark matter particles scatter off of one another, then the interplay between gravity and these scatterings may lead to a catastrophic collapse, leaving behind a black hole in its wake.
Join me on a tour of the dark Universe during the earliest stages of its evolution. I will discuss the puzzle of the existence of supermassive black holes at cosmic dawn, and how dark matter may resolve this mystery. With space telescopes like the James Webb, we can peer back far enough to see if dark matter in galaxies does collapse and form black holes at cosmic dawn, and potentially unravel this longstanding mystery in cosmology.
About our Events:
All RASC lectures and observing events are open to the public, family friendly, and there is no charge for admission. Our organization is run entirely by volunteers who love astronomy and astrophysics. Whether you're a complete beginner, a seasoned astronomer, or you hope to work for NASA some day, anyone fascinated by space exploration is welcome and will enjoy our events