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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

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Bio

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an associate professor of physics and astronomy, and a core faculty member in women's studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her research in theoretical physics focuses on cosmology, neutron stars and particles beyond the standard model.

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This new visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping its surroundings as if seen in a carnival mirror. The visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole where infalling matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. The black hole?s extreme gravity skews light emitted by different regions of the disk, producing the misshapen appearance. Bright knots constantly form and dissipate in the disk as magnetic fields wind and twist through the churning gas. Nearest the black hole, the gas orbits at close to the speed of light, while the outer portions spin a bit more slowly. This difference stretches and shears the bright knots, producing light and dark lanes in the disk. Viewed from the side, the disk looks brighter on the left than it does on the right. Glowing gas on the left side of the disk moves toward us so fast that the effects of Einstein?s relativity give it a boost in brightness; the opposite happens on the right side, where gas moving away us becomes slightly dimmer. This asymmetry disappears when we see the disk exactly face on because, from that perspective, none of the material is moving along our line of sight. Closest to the black hole, the gravitational light-bending becomes so excessive that we can see the underside of the disk as a bright ring of light seemingly outlining the black hole. This so-called ?photon ring? is composed of multiple rings, which grow progressively fainter and thinner, from light that has circled the black hole two, three, or even more times before escaping to reach our eyes. Because the black hole modeled in this visualization is spherical and non-rotating, the photon ring looks nearly circular and identical from any viewing angle. Inside the photon ring is the black hole?s shadow, an area roughly twice the size of the event horizon ? its point of no return. This visualization is ?mass invariant,? which means it can represent a black hole of any mass. The size of the black hole's shadow is proportional to its mass, but so is the size of the accreetion disk, so its properties scale accordingly. Simulations and movies like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity warps the fabric of space and time.

Physics

How the weird and powerful pull of black holes made me a physicist

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View Los Angeles financial district skyline at night

Environment

The shift to LED lighting is stopping us from seeing our night skies

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Silhouettes of people observing stars in night sky. Astronomy concept.; Shutterstock ID 586441904; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

I might be an astrophysicist, but I'm still learning about stargazing

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35-ton-capacity Prototype cryostat for LBNF / DUNE, Anode Plane Assemblies - Construction of the DUNE 35-ton prototype detector

Physics

A tale of two mysteries: ghostly neutrinos and the proton decay puzzle

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Fractal image electrons movement in a magnetic field or colorful space background. Quantum physics. Soap bubbles or photon, atom, neutrino. Nanotechnology, nanocosmos, nanoworld. 3d illustration.; Shutterstock ID 2130031907; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

In a new era of astronomy, we're feeling for vibrations in space-time

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Wolf-Rayet stars are known to be efficient dust producers, and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope shows this to great effect. Cooler cosmic dust glows at the longer mid-infrared wavelengths, displaying the structure of WR 124?s nebula. The nebula is made of material cast off from the aging star in random ejections, and from dust produced in the ensuing turbulence. This brilliant stage of mass loss precedes the star?s eventual supernova, when nuclear fusion in its core stops and the pressure of gravity causes it to collapse in on itself, and then explode. As MIRI demonstrates here, Webb will help astronomers to explore questions that were previously only left to theory about how much dust stars like this create before exploding in a supernova, and how much of that dust is large enough to survive the blast and go on to serve as building blocks of future stars and planets.

Space

How galactic mysteries near and far are poised to shake up cosmology

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Beatriz Nascimento Afro-Brazilian academic and activist

Space

Two books to write and the universe to decipher – 2024’s gonna be busy

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TBTFJA star trail circle-space-night-sunset-blue

Physics

Why I've been somewhat obsessed with space-time this year

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KPJYBX Illustration of a coronal mass ejection impacting the Earth?s atmosphere. These events, CMEs for short, are powerful releases of solar charged particl

Space

Why we need to bring stellar astrophysics into the real world

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S3F98G Colorful balloons against the light

Space

How the balloon analogy for an expanding universe is almost perfect

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Editorial use only Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (14061651br) Emmerdale - Ep 9774 & Ep 9775 Tuesday 5th September 2023 Despite their past hostility, it seems that Cain Dingle, as played by Jeff Hordley, and Caleb, as played by Will Ash, are finally headed in the right direction. Caleb makes his entry into the family official with a drink from the Dingle welly. 'Emmerdale' TV Show, Episodes Ep 9761-9778 UK - Aug 2023 Emmerdale, is a British ITV long running soap opera, known as Emmerdale Farm until 1989, set in Emmerdale, a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. It was created by Kevin Laffan and was first broadcast on 16 October 1972. It was originally produced by ITV Yorkshire and is still filmed in their Leeds studios.

Physics

How soap operas can help us understand special relativity

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Why Isaac Newton's laws still give physicists a lot to think about

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