“The Heaviest Black Holes”

For the most massive stars in the Universe – up to at least 300 times the mass of the Sun – it is thought that their cores collapse to just a point in space,: a ‘singularity’.

Such singularity is usually referred to as a Black Hole, where the force of gravity is so humongous that even light cannot escape. This is why the object is Black, you simply cannot see it.

In this talk, I will address how we know that Black Holes exist and how Heavy they become. It will be particularly interesting to consider if those stars that lived in the very Early Universe were capable of producing heavier Black Holes than produced today.

Bio

Prof Jorick Vink finished his thesis on “radiation-driven winds of massive stars” at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, before moving to Imperial College London in the UK in 2001. 

He was awarded an RCUK Academic Fellowship at Keele University in 2005 before moving to Armagh Observatory in 2007 where he became a Research Astronomer. 

He was Acting director of Armagh planetarium in 2015-2016, and received a visiting Professorship from the University of Leeds in 2017. 

His main research interests are in stellar evolution, atmospheres, and winds from massive stars up to explosion. 

He is currently Principal Investigator (PI) of the ESO-VLT Large Programme: “X-Shooting ULLYSES: the physics of massive stars at low Metallicity”. 

VENUE: Larmor Lecture Theatre, Astrophysics Research Centre, Physics Building, QUB.

Admission free, including light refreshments, All welcome.