Hi there! My name is León Sosapanta and will arrive at the University of Amsterdam in September this year to join Sera Markoff’s group as a Ph.D. student. My research will focus on theoretical modeling of black hole accretion, particularly using numerical/computational techniques in the code H-AMR, to better understand the physics implemented within these […]
New World, New Life Read More »
You know you are a theorist when you find yourself solving problems that were “left as an exercise for the reader”. You might even know you are a theorist when your default hypothesis for a weird astrophysical phenomenon isn’t just “because of magnetism”. I have not been able to relate to these statements until this
You know you are a theorist when… Read More »
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
From BIG to small, accretion built them all Read More »
‘Cause you’re a sky, ’cause you’re a sky full of starsI’m gonna give you my heart‘Cause you’re a sky, ’cause you’re a sky full of stars‘Cause you light up the pathI don’t care, go on and tear me apartI don’t care if you do, ooh ooooh oooooooh ooooooooohhhh Uhh sorry, I really like this song!
A sky full of… PeVatrons Read More »
Quasi-periodic oscillations appear to be a common characteristic of accreting systems and have been observed in black hole and neutron star X-ray binaries, alongside active galactic nuclei and even ultraluminous X-ray sources. The focus of this blog post is quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole X-ray binaries. Black hole X-ray binaries are comprised of a stellar
Black hole accretion and quasi-periodic oscillations Read More »
As introduced in the previous posts, nowadays it is well known that spacetime is not always ‘flat’ but can be distorted by the presence of massive (dense) objects, according to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The amount of distortion in spacetime depends on the mass of the object and on how compact it is.
An eclipse is defined as a total or partial obscuring of one astronomical body by another. For millennia, cultures all over the world have witnessed, marveled at, and feared eclipses. For residents of planet Earth, the two most interesting and important eclipses are of eclipses the Sun (Solar eclipse) and the Moon (Lunar Eclipse). A
The Science Behind the Solar Eclipse Read More »
May 2021 marks a significant milestone in planetary exploration, when China’s spacecraft Tianwen-1 softly landed on the surface of Mars, and deployed the rover Zhurong. The complete success of China’s first interplanetary mission makes China the third country landing on Mars (after the Soviet Union and the United States), the second country releasing a Martian
Questioning the Heavens Read More »
A couple of weeks ago, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has revealed, for the first time, the black hole image of the M87 in polarized light. This is the next big step closer to better understanding how accreting materials evolve and how M87 launches the energetic jets, which extend at least 5000 light-years. Light
Unveiled shape of magnetic field around black hole from polarized light Read More »
This is the final part of the three part series on Spaghettification where finally black holes come into the picture! Black Holes Black holes are regions of space(time) where gravity becomes is so strong that that not even light can escape. The size of this spherical region is specified by a radius called the Schwarzschild
MasterChef Universe : Spaghetti(fication) with Black Holes (Part III) Read More »
