Black Holes & Hawking’s Irish
Protege
Stephen Hawking’s only-ever Irish Student is
coming home to give a public talk on Black Holes. Dr Oisin MacConamhna is
originally from Sligo, and now works as a research fellow with Imperial College
London. As a 12-year old boy Oisin joined Astronomy Ireland. Upon finishing
school he studied applied maths at NUI Galway, then went to Cambridge, where he
completed his PhD under Professor Stephen Hawking, the world's foremost living
cosmologist.
In recent years Dr MacConamhna has published papers on
inflating universes, along with numerous papers on mathematical and geometrical
methods for solving Einstein's equations.
His current field of
research is on the geometry of event horizons and their relationship to quantum
field theories. Event horizons are the ‘point-of-no-return’ around a black hole
- the distance from the centre at which the escape velocity is greater than the
speed of light. Because of this, nothing, even light itself was thought capable
of escaping a black hole’s gravitational grip. But in 1970, Stephen Hawking put
forward a theory that black holes, given enough time, will
evaporate!
Monday’s lecture will focus on Black Holes, and in it Dr
MacConamhna will reveal that they are much, much more than one-way portals into
oblivion. In clear, everyday language, he will explain how our commonsense ideas
of space and time prove inadequate in the phenomenally intense gravity fields
around these objects, and how the remarkable predictions of Einstein’s Theory of
Relativity are shown to be true near these, the most bizarre objects in the
Universe.
Dr MacConamhna will be on the Mooney radio show (RTE Radio
1) on Friday 13 April between 3pm and 5pm to talk about working with Stephen
Hawking, Black Holes, Warped Space-Time and other peculiarities.
Bookings: www.astronomy.ie or (01) 847 07
77
Organiser: Astronomy
Ireland
Lecture
Title: "Black
Holes"
Lecture Venue: Physics
Building, Trinity College
Dublin.
Date:
Monday, 16 April
2007
Time:
8:00pm
Admission: 5euro
(3euro concessions) ALL WELCOME
Last Chance on Reduced Star-B-Q Ticket
Price
Monday's lecture will be your last chance to
book 40euro Star-B-Q tickets at the reduced price of 30euro.
Our ever-popular Star-B-Q's attracts attendees from all over the country, and
even oversees! To book online go to www.astronomy.ie/sbq or call (01) 847 07
77.
ASTRONOMY IRELAND - for telescopes and
information
call (01) 847
0777