May Meeting: Arthur Page Memorial Lecture – The Massive Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way

The focus of the May monthly meeting is a talk by Dr Holger Baumgardt titled The Massive Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way.  This represents the annual Arthur Page Memorial Lecture in honour of our founding member and renowned amateur astronomer the late Arthur Page.  An abstract of the meeting appears down further.

The May 2021 meeting will be a face-to-face meeting; attendees can also join in online via Zoom. Details emailed to members. Guests/visitors can contact us for Zoom details at .

Visitors are welcome to join our face-to-face or online meetings.

Please stay home and attend online if you have:
• fever or symptoms of respiratory infection (cough, sore throat, shortness of breath);
• returned from overseas in the last 14 days;
• been in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19: (coronavirus) in the last 14 days.

The Massive Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way

Black holes are fascinating objects for astronomers and the general public alike. They are the most extreme form of matter and so dense that not even light can escape from them. For many years black holes were only a theoretical prediction from general relativity, but over the past 20 years astronomers have found evidence that they also exist in nature. During my presentation I will show what is known about black holes and talk especially about the supermassive black hole at the Galactic centre, which is one of the best studied black holes and the most massive known to exist in our Milky Way.