Supermassive Black Holes Part II

I. Watch the second part of the film and decide whether the statements are true or false:

• The black hole size and the galaxy size seem to be related.

• There is no connection between the size of a black hole and the speed of stars at the edge of the galaxy.

• Galaxies and their black holes could be linked from birth.

• A black hole is only a destructive influence on its surroundings.

• Black holes can participate in star formation.

• A black hole will never start feeding again.

• The Andromeda is moving away from the Milky Way.

• The black holes of the two galaxies will probably merge together.

II. Watch the second part again and fill in the gaps:

1. When you are studying the object you know almost nothing about the first thing you do is to find ________________.

2. Every single black hole was exactly ___________ to the size of its ______.

3. The first _______ came when a new instrument was added to the Hubble Space Telescope.

4. There should be no ________ between the ________ and the ___________ at the edge of the galaxy.

5. A ___________ started to emerge.

6. The ________ were clearly related: the _____ the black hole, the ____ the speed of the stars at the edge of the galaxy.

7. Supermassive black holes might even ______________ of the galaxies themselves.

8. The black hole would immediately ____________ on the gas around it creating a brilliant ______.

9. This would cause the gas around the black hole and its newly formed quazar to _______.

III. Explain the following: to be related to, the breakthrough, to accelerate, two competing researchers, to turn the world of cosmology on its head, fundamental, unaffected by smth, to emerge, to feed on the gas, to trigger the birth of the galaxy, a constituent, to underestimate, an emission, an impending collision, to merge together, a supernova.

IV. Answer the questions:

• What was the first regular pattern found by the scientists?

• How are the size of the black hole and the galaxy size connected?

• What is “sigma” (Σ)?

• What is the connection between the size of the black hole and the speed of the stars at the edge of the galaxy?

• How are black holes linked to the galaxies? What positive impact on their surroundings do they have?

• Why do black holes stop feeding? How does it happen?

• How far is the black hole in our galaxy?

• In what circumstances can a black hole start feeding again?

• What will happen to the Solar System in 3 billion years?

• Does the information in the film differ somehow from the facts traditionally provided in students’ books, encyclopaedias and so on?

V. Speaking

- You are making a science TV programme for teenagers.

1. Tell them the history of the latest discoveries in cosmology connected with the existence of black holes in the Universe.

2. Tell your listeners about the future that awaits the Solar System and the Earth in billions of years. You can use your background knowledge to give several scenarios of what might happen to our planet.

- You are making a report about the role of black holes in galaxy formation. Tell your colleagues about the regular patterns observed by scientists, their speculations about how black holes might have been created in the distant past and what might happen to us in the future.