Astronomy Week | Monsters in the Cosmic Sea

Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape. Once thought to be the realm of science fiction, astronomers have discovered they are very common in the Universe, part of the natural lives of stars and galaxies. The fact that they are common does not change their strangeness! They bend space and time, they can shred stars into nothing, and they will generally completely mess up your day if you have the misfortune to fall into one. Shane L. Larson, CIERA Northwestern University, will talk about some of these bizarre and brain melting predictions, reveal how astronomers are discovering black holes with gravitational waves, and ask what would happen to you on an imaginary voyage near the event horizon of a black hole (HINT: our poor cosmic voyagers are destined to have a very bad day!).