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Nature 455, 39-40 (4 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/455039a; Published online 3 September 2008
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Lecturer in Medical Bacteriology
- University of Strathclyde Glasgow
- Glasgow United Kingdom
Senior Staff Scientist (Ref 80251)
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
- Cambridge CB10 1SA United Kingdom
Astrophysics: Bringing black holes into focus
Christopher S. Reynolds1
Abstract
Do black holes exist? Observations at the finest resolution so far indicate that only gross deviations in the behaviour of gravity from that predicted by general relativity can invalidate the case that they do.
It is believed that the centre of essentially every galaxy, including our own, plays host to a supermassive black hole. In a small fraction of galaxies, large quantities of gas rain down into these giant black holes, causing the black hole to grow while releasing enough energy within the central few light hours of the galaxy to outshine all of the galaxy's stars thousands of times over.
- Christopher S. Reynolds is in the Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Email: chris@astro.umd.edu
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