Events

Event Horizon and Environs (ETHER)

Abstract: To date, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has imaged only two supermassive black holes at resolutions finer than 50 gravitational radii: M87 and SgrA*.
Ongoing and planned upgrades to the EHT enable demographic studies
of black holes at these scales – the focus of this talk.

We will present the Event Horizon and Environs (ETHER) sample of single and
binary black holes, a curated database for selection of (current and future) EHT targets. We will also present the progress in imaging  single black holes in ETHER with the EHT, and the expectations of imaging and monitoring binary black holes into the future. Finally, we will discuss a newly identified population of the most massive black holes (thus the largest black hole shadows) in the nearby universe, and its implications for the EHT.

Zoom Link

Bio: Neil Nagar is a professor at the University of Concepcion, Chile, and a member of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. He is is the Director of the ‘TITANs Millennium Nucleus’, a group of forty researchers and students across four universities in Chile. Nagar graduated as an engineer and mathematician at BITS, Pilani, India, before completing his Doctorate in Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2000.

Nagar’s interests include supermassive black holes, galaxy evolution, and the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays.

Monday, April 28, 2025 11:00 AM