No, not the West Side Story musical kind… (although they are awesome) The Jets gang from West Side Story.  So our research group is called Jetset. We work on trying to figure out the physical processes that launch jets of matter and light from (very close to) black holes.  So what are these jets actually? In the astrophysical sense, jets are linear beams of charged particles like protons and electrons (aka plasma) that are emitted along the rotation axis of an astrophysical object, like a black hole. Jets launched from black holes reach speeds close to the speed of light. These super fast moving outflows of plasma exhibit the effects…

Our research group is composed almost entirely of theorists. They create models and simulations, based on physics, to try to figure out how black holes work. I’m an observational astronomer, I gather data from telescopes and try to figure out how black holes (and neutron stars) work. The thing that we’re all trying to figure out is this process called accretion. In other words, the process by which black holes pull matter from their surroundings or a companion star into themselves via gravity. This process increases the black hole mass, powers its rotation and is linked to the launching of jets of matter and light from around black holes. In…