Cosmic Journeys
Birth of a Black Hole. It was one of the greatest mysteries in modern science: a series of brief but extremely bright flashes of ultra-high energy light coming from somewhere out in space. These gamma ray bursts were first spotted
by spy satellites in the 1960s. It took three decades and a revolution in high-energy astronomy for scientists to figure out what they were.
Far out in space, in the center of a seething cosmic maelstrom. Extreme heat. High velocities. Atoms tear, and space literally buckles. Photons fly out across the universe, energized to the limits found in nature. Billions of years later,
they enter the detectors of spacecraft stationed above our atmosphere. Our ability to record them is part of a new age of high-energy astronomy, and a new age of insights into nature at its most extreme. What can we learn by witnessing the violent birth of a black hole?
| Episode 01 - Birth of a Black Hole |
Go to Cosmic Journeys Home or watch other episodes: