AAS Meeting #193 - Austin, Texas, January 1999
Session 115. Heineman Prize Lecture: Blandford
Invited, Saturday, January 9, 1999, 11:40am-12:30pm, Ballroom A

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Sessions 86 and 115 have switched presentation times,
Blandford will speak on Friday and Colwell on Saturday.

[115.01] New Horizons in Black Hole Astrophysics

R. D. Blandford (Caltech)

Beyond reasonable doubt, black holes are commonly found in the nuclei of nearby galaxies and Galactic binary systems. Masses of these black holes are being measured with greater confidence and attention is now turning towards measuring the second astrophysically relevant parameter, the spin. There are many modes through which gas, probably accreting through a disk, can interact with the central hole to form ultrarelativistic jets and thermal and non-thermal emission. The interpretation of the Galactic center, Galactic superluminal sources, TeV blazars and broad absorption line quasars will be discussed in this context. In particular, it will be argued that extraction of the spin energy of the hole is responsible for extremely non-thermal activity and that, when gas is supplied at rates well above and well below the critical rate, it is mostly expelled in the form of a wind. The prospects for learning more about the properties of astrophysical black holes using radio, X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes will be briefly discussed.


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