Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Ray Bursts: Cosmic Catastrophes

This is the eleventh lecture series of my complete online introductory undergraduate college course. This video series was used at William Paterson University and CUNY Hunter in online classes as well as to supplement in-person course material. Notes and links are present in the videos at the start of each lecture.
Black Holes are the ultimate triumph of gravity over matter. The most mysterious objects in the cosmos, as they do not reveal their innards to any probe. Black holes fascinate people who just start learning about astronomy. This is my overview of the premiere Gee-Whiz-Bang-Pow of outreach. Gamma-ray bursts are the sources of kilonovae, which are among the most interesting of the Big-Bada-Booms. This even leads to the most important discovery of the 21st century! Gamma Ray Bursts are a major mystery that arose from the verification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and led to major discoveries about where most of the heavy elements of the universe come from. Without exception, Gravitational Wave discoveries are one of the most important developments in all of science. Predicted by Einstein in 1911, they were finally observed in 2016. In August of 2017, their counterparts in visible light were finally seen with telescopes.

[@MegaBrokenstar]

The guy who said measuring gravitational waves would be impossible to measure and then measured them is a hero of the scientific mindset. Not only was he willing to be proven wrong, he went to extreme lengths to prove himself wrong. Absolutely amazing.

[@wssometimesavowel3639]

Yes, how do you think black hole mergers can be observed, but a person crossing the event horizon would never be seen? (as the entire universe's future would have played out by the time the Jack reaches the event horizon according to this story)

[@savagesarethebest7251]

Einstein said that we would never be able to observe gravity waves...he said lots of things that were going to be proven wrong. We have to give it to him, the laser had not been invented yet.. :)

[@TheEnigmaUniverse-vt2pm]

To all involved with this video from the narrator and writers and the artists and videographer and all the scientist , fantastic job well done making a the subject matter easy to comprehend and enjoyable. The voice of the narrator keeping me interested. Surely this won awards and deservedly so.

[@TheEnigmaUniverse-vt2pm]

You've just painted, from scratch, an intuitive image in my head of our galaxy's path through the universe and its relationship to other celestial objects in under half hour.

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

Thanks for that!

[@Scotch42]

So easy to listen to. Love the way you communicate the cosmos.

[@johntallarico5888]

So the idea that an object could have enough mass and gravity that it's escape velocity would exceed the speed of light preventing light particles from escaping dates to the 1700s.

[@scottdorfler2551]

It's incredible how close to the truth he was 230 years ago.

[@j121212100]

i fall asleep with autoplay on and these videos incorporate into my dreams. From kite surfing to a visit to learning a simple derivation to the event horizon with an argument with the author of the text book on wormhole coupling. To winning a trip to the ISS to dealing with a missing tile on the reentry vehicle and i'm like why don't they invent a ceramic foam like a great stuff bottle for dealing with this and returned to earth to tell everybody what a week a had.

[@fordid42]

Same, I get some of his stuff in my dreams. Jason's lectures have been great for background listening while I do other tasks, too.

[@dwrobotics2180]

This happened to me last night and I was dreaming about some kind of equation that helps you convert time into mass and back again. I wish I could remember the equation but it had an infinity symbol within it that could turn on its side almost like an 8. In my dreams this was a key to a kind of grand unified theory that allows you the ability to move through time in any direction at will. TBH the concept of time and mass being interchangeable is actually pretty cool and actually makes a little bit of sense.

[@simrcchannel]

Love all your collections of lectures download all the audios and listen/fall asleep 🤪☺️😂😒🥰

[@worfoz]

Interviewer: "So, you're an adjunct instructor of Astronomy?" Jason: "No I am a sleep coach"

[@adellantte3755]

Thank You for referring us such an interesting subject!! Amazing is space and matter.

[@bruceh92]

Best universe video for learning, everything explained clearly. 👍

[@ratdad48]

Yes indeed. Love this guy's teaching style.

[@katinapac-baez5083]

Two words: infectious excitement

[@philswede]

Greetings from Sweden! You, Sir, just got yourself a new subscriber.

[@vernonvouga5869]

I don't know why the algorithm has it showed me any of your new posts. But I've been a fan for a long time man

[@SirDeadPuppy]

Can you do a video on baryonic acoustic oscillations?

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

That’s a deep topic. I do get at it on the surface in my cosmology lectures. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3Wnn5utr9R6rJo

[@dt5072]

Good stuff man

[@davidkillawee6]

So just wondering, on another documentary I heard GRB's being referred to as the most powerful particle accelerators in the universe, if that's the case can heavier than than Iron elements be produced by the jets through a super collider process, or is super collision effectively how these elements are produced in a normal Type II supernova?

[@thenerdywalker516]

Thank you for sharing! Gravitational waves and gamma ray bursts are some of the things I love learning about in astronomy

[@malinkifox2011]

Thanks for uploading this. Really good listen

[@hsharma3933]

1:09:36 lends even more credence to the idea that black holes are galactic decomposers. They consume finished products and they return photons and subatomic particles to the universe.

[@Vedioviswritingservice]

Jack's only problem was his method of locomotion. Instead of a box, he had gone out on a surfboard there would have been no issues. Jack would have entered the black hole and came out the other side. There is no other side, to a black hole? Jack would have made one. Just think about the silver surfer. That's how it is done.

[@terran5569]

What is the size of the gravitational waves at their creation? Are wave size proportional to the mass of the black holes or neutron stars?

[@robertjensen4249]

Great Videos Jason!! Excellent content and explanations..

[@IbnFarteen]

Around 42:00, Since the outside observer sees the falling observer slow down to a stop, the falling observer should see the entire future of the outside transpire in a flash. I think that would also include the evaporation of the black hole trillions of years in the future.

[@tnekkc]

I woke up and autoplay brought me here. I thought Jason's voice was one of my relatives until I realized "None of my relatives are that smart"

[@tnekkc]

The explanations in this video are so clear, I can understand every word. And I have a degenerative brain disease, Parkinson's.

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

I’m glad to hear that! It’s important that everyone has access to the science education that works for them.

[@climbeverest]

Also please explain where jwst is looking for exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy, are they looking at other spirals, other than the one we are on, meaning there has to be a similar star on the other radial spirals of the Milky Way that are as equidistant from the center of Milky Way as the Sun, which must host life similar to Earth?

[@blackfrost273industries4]

I have questions of clarification on this segment around the orbit of photons. At about 19:30-10:00 or so.

[@blackfrost273industries4]

27:49, so the pulses are the same quantity for both jack and Jill? Say both count 400?

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

Counting requires time. Imagine someone deep in a gravity well beaming regular pulses out. A distant watcher well outside the deep gravity well has to wait much longer between each sent pulse to receive them. So, if the deep-person never crosses an event horizon and just hangs out there and sends 200 pulses in a regular short time interval between each, then yes, the far-away receiver will get all 200. They just have to wait a long time between each pulse.

[@blackfrost273industries4]

@@JasonKendallAstronomer okay, yes. And naturally the pulses will become more spaced apart at an increasing rate. The sounds of things, the pulse's duration will also increase over time just as the red shift starts to take effect. I imagine. This is interesting for sure. If I had one thing to write a book or several about, it would be about accuracy in astronomy and mathematics. I would enjoy having people have the same brain reactions as I do when i have the moment where everything clicks and I instantly visualize things that I've been learning about. Like how something would appear in an experiment like this around the same visuals as interstellar. That coupled with having specialized people be able to be immersed in the story. Or just stem lovers even.

[@erikwislinsky5961]

I can’t find any material on this warp / woof stuff. Anyone know a good video or paper I could read?

[@j121212100]

how do we know there is a singularity behind the event horizon?

[@ZackieChan-yq1xs]

im going to eighth grade this year, woke up to this and now i feel educated lol

[@kenchesnut4425]

Love listening..and learning ..your are such a good communicator...MUCH LUV FROM N.AUGUSTA S.C

[@Vedioviswritingservice]

How much explosive power would be needed to collapse/destroy a black hole? If a star was close to one and went supernova, would that be enough?

[@climbeverest]

Professor you are incredible

[@natsch2242]

Great 😃

[@agostinhooliveira5781]

I think the equivalent principle has, at least, two exceptions: tidal forces and light's frequency Doppler effect.

[@nathanokun8801]

Strangly, this is as close to the old idea if the "Ether" as we have in reality, being what that stuff would actually act like.

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

Sure, but there are significant differences. AEther would’ve been an actual material. Gravitational waves are the propagation of changes in the gravitational field. Gravity is not transmitted by an AEther.

[@FordSierraIS]

how are they supposed to travel that close when light is in equilibrium of pull/escape that close?

[@Lobos222]

If the singularity\ big bang was dense. How did it only crate hydrogen and helium or was that an indirect aspect because atoms did not excist before that. Lets say if two "neutron stars" of "dense space, but none atoms" joined. They would only create H and He for the simple reason that the other rules does not matter, not a pun but, they do not count because matter can only "transform" (proton joining into heavier material) if it is matter (atoms) from the get go, aka H, He or similar?

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

Thanks for the question. It looks like you’re having a great time exploring Astronomy. It’s best to answer your question with a redirect to my Cosmology playlist. Your questions are all answered there. Module 14: Cosmology and the Big Bang kzbin.info/aero/PLyu4Fovbph6dSGHJOP3o171TON6rLyN6w

[@Lobos222]

@@JasonKendallAstronomerThanks :)

[@wssometimesavowel3639]

Would jack experience blueshift of the Jill laser? Wouldn't it's pulses increase in frequency and decrease in wavelength until they're gamma rays? But past the event horizon because the space is contracting faster than the speed of light how could more energy be produced, it would have to be less I imagine, like how we're in an expanding spacetime faster than light supposedly they should look the same except the things outside of your light sphere not gravitationally bound should begin to red shift.. because they're no longer causally connected. Nothing Jack could do could effect anything outside that gravitational influence of the black hole. So distant galaxies not causally connected from faster than light travel should continue to red shift.

[@beck4218]

1/40th of a second. ;) The magnetic fields look biological in the sim. Like microtobules or mitochondria blown out of a cell.

[@RPLAsmodeus]

so the pull force of a black hole is faster than the speed of light since it can bend and pull light in?

[@FordSierraIS]

when close enough. at the event horizon its 1:1 further out light escapes

[@grproteus]

you are looking it in terms of force, where in reality this is not what's happening. The Black Hole bends spacetime, then the light follows the shortest spacetime path it can follow, which is a straight line inside that bent. To us, that line appears as a curve, because spacetime is bent around the Black Hole.

[@markj3118]

How could a 40 solar mass star collapse directly into a 14.8 solar mass black hole?

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

A hypernova would occur which would disperse most of the mass. Some would be converted into light and some to gravitational waves. It’s a lot of energy.

[@deananderson9543]

Wish I could be in 1of your classes. Top grade.👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@Alice_Sweicrowe]

What if the central black hole is just the shared center of gravity for the galaxy?

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

It is located there, but that’s likely not what you mean. It barely affects the regions outside of a couple thousand light years

[@Alice_Sweicrowe]

@JasonKendallAstronomer Galactic center of gravity. It's just a loose idea really, but imagine a center of gravity so strong light can't escape it.

[@freddigglegmail]

Where did the three solar masses of energy come from? I thought nothing can shrink a black hole, except evaporation.

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

Good question. When two black holes collide, they make waves in spacetime. Those waves carry energy. The only source of the energy is the spacetime curvature, i.e. the black hole itself. The merging of the two curvatures is violent, and takes away the mass-energy from the two holes as waves.

[@christopherreed2694]

It's all about the Schwartz!

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

infalling speed near the event horizon is roughly plaid.

[@gregspandex427]

Where is the remnant of the body that must have exploded to provide the material to form our solar system?

[@terran5569]

The animation of the warping of space-time doesn't accurately represent reality as it shows the gravity well adjacent to the black hole and not centered on it. The only way I can imagine the gravity well is in cross-section. It gives me a mind warp.

[@ltsgobrando]

Rip Arecibo

[@scottmcdonald5237]

😮💥

[@phukfone8428]

Dark star 2:22:22

[@elijaguy]

24:35 Jill, we forgot to warn Jack, that's what she does to her friends if they have a quarrel. Since then she had a few others, who had a similar fate.

[@Jaggerbush]

Ugh I’m older than you - by a good 5 years… some reason I thought I would be younger.

[@LesterBarrett]

Schwarzschild = Black Shield

[@kennethsnyder9236]

Interesting 🤨 although everyone will eventually fall into the black hole and nothing will matter because matters are nothingness lol

[@chriskelly6574]

At 22:46 did you open a beer?

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

I actually think it was a La Croix Pamplemousse....

[@chriskelly6574]

@@JasonKendallAstronomer lol, staying hydrated is important but, in the time of destabilizing climate a smidge of alcohol helps keep the pathogens down...oh, now everyone thinks I drink a lot...

[@kenchesnut4425]

Enough is enough....You did a wonderful job explaining.. BUT If this isn't ALIEN TECHNOLOGY ....I WILL EAT MY 👢 🥾 BOOT..LOL ..LOVE THE VIDEOES

[@CloverCR7]

😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

[@CloverCR7]

😮😮😊😊😅😊😅😅😅😮😅😅😅😅😅😅😮