Touted to be the event horizon of the year, “Images from the Edge of Spacetime” treated Vancouver alumni to an interactive and fascinating lecture on black holes by Waterloo astrophysics professor Avery Broderick.
A capacity crowd of 120 local alumni and friends gathered to listen as Broderick discussed international efforts to interpret horizon-resolving images of numerous supermassive black holes.
According to Broderick, almost every galaxy has at its core a supermassive black hole, millions or even billions of times more massive than our sun. Despite composing a small fraction of the galactic mass budgets, they set the stage for astrophysical dramas that dictate the fates of their hosts. Though black holes are in theory the ultimate manifestation of strong gravity’s impact on the visible universe, placing these exotic phenomena on concrete empirical footing has been impossible.
The evening kicked off with a warm welcome from Professor Will Percival, Director of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics and the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Distinguished Research Chair in Astrophysics.
“Astrophysics fascinates everyone on some level,” says Percival, who also acted as Masters of Ceremony for the evening. “I’m pleased but not surprised by the turnout. Waterloo is working on some very exciting physics. I’m glad that we’re able to keep our alumni up to date on what’s going on.”
Alumni stayed on for a bit of social connecting after the talk, with many requesting additional lectures such as this to be held in the future.
“Lot of interest… so many questions,” laughed Broderick following the reception. “I’m happy people enjoyed hearing about my work.”
The evening ended with a hint that an important announcement from Broderick’s camp regarding black holes might be coming in April.
Alumni were also advised that Waterloo would return with another Vancouver event April 25, 2019, “Imagining Canada’s Future Cities”.