Black Holes: Gravity's Fatal Attraction
For Educators Grades 6-12
August 2-6, 2010
This workshop will introduce the predicted properties of black holes, the astronomical evidence for their existence, and their importance in the cosmos. Modern ideas about gravity, space, and time will also be explored.
We will present our best understanding of the Solar System and how other solar systems form, which is very different from what we used to teach only a few short years ago! We will also highlight other NASA Solar System Exploration missions, including New Horizons (Pluto), Messenger (Mercury), and Phoenix (Mars).
Some key topics for discussion include the following:
- Newton's and Einstein's theories of gravity
- What is a black hole?
- Predicted properties of black holes
- Stars and their fates
- How to detect a black hole
- Black holes in our backyard
- The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy
- Supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei
- Black-hole pyrotechnics: Active galaxies and jets
- Spinning black holes
- Gravitational waves
- Hawking radiation: Are black holes really black?
- Singularities. What's inside a black hole?
- Quantum foam, wormholes, and time machines
- Hypernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer
Tentative Schedule
Sunday: OrientationMonday: Black hole physics and stellar mass black holes
Tuesday: Observing black holes in the Milky Way
Wednesday: Black holes in other galaxies
Thursday: Exotic properties of black holes
Friday: Inside a black hole
Pennsylvania Science Education Standards
• Physical Sciences Standard C – Forces and motion
• Physical Sciences Standard D – Composition and structure of the universe
Lead Instructors
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Dr. Neil Brandt has been at Penn State since 1997 and is currently a professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Brandt uses X-ray satellites, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission-Newton, to study the physics and evolution of active galaxies and other cosmic X-ray sources. He is an author of more than 200 research papers and leads a small research group including postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. He also regularly teaches courses on introductory astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, black holes, and active galaxies. His favorite rock bands include the Beautiful South, the Eagles, and the Smiths. |
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Dr. Christopher Palma has substantial experience in education and public outreach in astronomy, and in 2003 he was hired as a full-time astronomy outreach faculty member at Penn State. Since 1995 he has been involved in numerous formal and informal science education programs. As a graduate student, Chris provided summer enrichment labs for a local school, created an "Astronomy Question & Answer" website staffed by graduate students, and was the guest astronomy expert on a local AM radio talk show. At Penn State, Chris has continued to participate in outreach by giving presentations and running demos at the community outreach event run by Penn State called AstroFest, presenting the Fall 2003 Penn State Friedman Lecture in Astronomy to an audience of 500, giving planetarium shows to visiting K-12 classes, and designing and implementing three summer camps for K - 8th graders with astronomy, space exploration, and astrobiology themes. Since 2001, Chris has served as Director and a Lead Instructor for the Penn State In-Service Workshops in Astronomy. His teaching responsibilities have included courses for both undergraduate astronomy majors and introductory astronomy for non-science majors. He has authored and taught several on-line astronomy courses to both distance education and Penn State resident student audiences. |
The workshops are an outreach program of NASA's Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, the Eberly College of Science, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, NASA Astrobiology Institute, the NSF-funded Penn State Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).