One of the big mysteries about the black hole at the center of the galaxy is, 'Why don't we see emission from matter falling onto the black hole, or, rather, the black hole eating up its surroundings?' Andrea M. Ghez bigblackcenter share on social
One of the key differences between galaxies with super massive black holes is whether or not the black holes are lit up, because they are basically bingeing on a lot of material in its surroundings. Andrea M. Ghez basicallybingeblack Change image and share on social
The key to proving that there's a black hole is showing that there's a tremendous amount of mass in a very small volume. And you can do that with the motions of stars. Andrea M. Ghez amountblackhole Change image and share on social
The Keck telescope, which is the largest in the world, had opened just before I began my faculty position at UCLA. Andrea M. Ghez beginfacultykeck Change image and share on social
Gravity wins over all other known forces. Andrea M. Ghez forcegravitywin Change image and share on social
Fortunately, most things around the supermassive black hole are just going to go around it. They're going to orbit it. They don't actually get sucked in. Andrea M. Ghez blackfortunatelyhole Change image and share on social
How do you observe something you can't see? This is the basic question of somebody who's interested in finding and studying black holes. Because black holes are objects whose pull of gravity is so intense that nothing can escape it, not even light, so you can't see it directly. Andrea M. Ghez basicblackdirectly share on social
We have this interesting problem with black holes. What is a black hole? It is a region of space where you have mass that's confined to zero volume, which means that the density is infinitely large, which means we have no way of describing, really, what a black hole is! Andrea M. Ghez blackconfinedensity share on social
I'm interested in finding whether or not there is a really massive, what we like to call 'super massive' black hole at the center of our galaxy. And the reason this is interesting is that it gives us an opportunity to prove whether or not these exotic objects really exist. Andrea M. Ghez blackcallcenter share on social
