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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Columnist

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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More from Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Explore the latest news, articles and features

Simulation of a black hole

Space

What does it mean to “look” at a black hole?

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Physics

We physicists could learn a lot by stepping beyond our specialisms

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Chandra X-ray Observatory

Space

Why we need to save the Chandra space telescope

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Space

What happens at a black hole's edge? It depends on your perspective

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2CE844B Infinity tunnel pocket watch time, time travel concept

Physics

How physics is helping us to explain why time always moves forwards

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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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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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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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