Most of Bradley Observatory’s open houses focus on a topic in physics or astronomy with lectures given by Agnes Scott faculty, students, alumni/ae or local scientists. This event will feature Justin Robinson of Georgia State University with a lecture entitled, “Probing Nearby Active Galaxies: Distances, Masses, Dark Matter, and Black Holes”. Justin is a 4th year astronomy PhD candidate at Georgia State University. His research focuses on active galaxies and their distances, rotation rates, masses, and supermassive black holes. “It has become apparent in the past two decades that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the galaxies which host them have a symbiotic relationship. SMBHs are linked to several large-scale galaxy properties, which implies that SMBHs and their galaxies evolve together, and that their growth is regulated by the feedback from actively feeding SMBHs. These links allow insight into galaxy-black hole behavior over cosmic time, therefore it is vital to obtain accurate measurements of the galaxy properties that are related to the central SMBHs.”
