Science AMA Series: I’m Michael Tremmel, an astrophysicist studying
supermassive black holes and galaxies using computer simulations. I’ll
be talking about supermassive black holes, their galaxies, and why some
may be “wandering” around. AMA!
Abstract
Edit: Thanks everyone for the questions so far! I’ll be taking a break,
but I will periodically check back throughout the rest of the day and
tomorrow as well if there are any more questions! This was fun, thank
you! I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Center for Astronomy and
Astrophysics. My research involves using large computer simulations to
model the growth and evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black
holes. My recent work, where we predict that massive galaxies like our
own should host several “wandering” supermassive black holes, has
recently been the subject of a press release. Given that this work has
generated some interest on reddit, I thought this would be a great
opportunity to answer questions about this paper, as well as
supermassive black holes in general. Why do we care about supermassive
black holes and how does this study help change how we understand them?
I’ll be back at 1 pm ET to answer your questions, AMA!