Supermassive Black Holes and Strong-Field Relativity - Lecture 15

Explore the fascinating world of supermassive black holes in this 48-minute lecture from Yale University's Frontiers/Controversies in Astrophysics course. Delve into a question-and-answer session addressing the existence of black holes in galactic centers, their massive scale, and observational techniques. Examine strong-field relativity and its implications for testing black hole predictions. Discover how astronomers study X-ray binary star systems to estimate the mass of compact objects and potentially identify black holes. Learn about the methods used to detect these cosmic phenomena, including Professor Bailyn's personal account of discovering a black hole. Gain insights into cutting-edge astrophysics topics such as gravitational waves and the latest observational techniques in this comprehensive exploration of supermassive black holes.