Black Holes

In this segment of the “How Fast Is It” video book, we cover Black Holes: what they are; how they’re categorized; how they form; and how they grow via accretion disks with jets that appear to accelerate matter to velocities faster than the speed of light. We cover the Kerr Metric for rotating energy densities that produce frame-dragging.  We cover the anatomy of a black hole and the first image of a black hole ever taken. We cover how black holes are detected – including binary star system dynamics like Cygnus; galaxy center dynamics like our own Milky Way with Sagittarius a Star; by spotting disappearing stars; and with gravitational microlensing. We’ll close with a look at the two oldest black holes discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (CEERS 1019 and UHZ1) and their implications for the Big Bang timeline and two alternative black hole formation theories (Direct Collapse and Primordial).