Episode 20: Black Holes

Josh"Space Our Favorite Frontier"AstrophysicsBlack HolesAugust2025Season 2
Written By Kara Nyhan

Hungry Hungry Spaceballs

Part 3 of Our Mini-Series “Space: Our Favorite Frontier”

Welcome, at last, to the Black Hole episode! Josh has long alluded to creating an episode around these celestial objects and now is the time. Join us as we delve into the science, history, and misconceptions about some of the architects of galaxies! And of course, we discuss the use of Black Holes in Science Fiction (usually incorrectly). Be warned, once you cross the event horizon and begin this journey with us, there will be no going back!

Discussion Includes:

  • Black Hole Basics

  • History of Human Discovery & Knowledge

  • Common Misconceptions

  • Black Holes in Media: Sci-Fi’s Favorite Plot Device

©Wolf & Stag Productions LLC, 2025

Images:

References:

  • NASA. (2024, October 22). Types - NASA science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/universe/black-holes/types/ 

  • By Pablo Carlos Budassi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108529623

  • By Event Horizon Telescope, uploader cropped and converted TIF to JPG - This image has been extracted from another file, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77925953

  • By EHT Collaboration - https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2208-eht-mwa/ (image link), CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117933557

  • Scientific American. (2024, February 20). The smallest known Black Hole. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-smallest-known-black-hole/ 

  • Thompson, T. A., Kochanek, C. S., Stanek, K. Z., Badenes, C., Post, R. S., Jayasinghe, T., Latham, D. W., Bieryla, A., Esquerdo, G. A., Berlind, P., Calkins, M. L., Tayar, J., Lindegren, L., Johnson, J. A., Holoien, T. W.-S., Auchettl, K., & Covey, K. (2019, April 5). Discovery of a candidate black hole - giant star binary system in the galactic field. arXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.02751 

  • Overbye, D. (n.d.). Black Hole Hunters (published 2015). https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/science/black-hole-event-horizon-telescope.html 

  • Black holes. Black Holes | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. (n.d.). https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/research/topic/black-holes 

  • Prisco, J. (2025, July 17). Astronomers detect the most massive black hole collision ever. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/science/massive-black-hole-collision-gravitational-waves 

  • Jennifer Chu  |  MIT News. (n.d.). Astronomers discover star-shredding black holes hiding in Dusty Galaxies. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2025/astronomers-discover-star-shredding-black-holes-hiding-in-dusty-galaxies-0724 

  • John Michell: Country parson described black holes in 1783 | amnh. (n.d.). https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/john-michell-black-holes 

  • 1. Tauris TM, van den Heuvel EPJ. Formation and evolution of compact stellar X-ray sources. In: Lewin W, van der Klis M, eds. Compact Stellar X-Ray Sources. Cambridge Astrophysics. Cambridge University Press; 2006:623-666.

  • NASA. (2025, June 3). Anatomy - NASA Science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/universe/black-holes/anatomy/ 

  • NASA. (n.d.). Supermassive black hole sagittarius A*. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/supermassive-black-hole-sagittarius/ 

  • Einstein’s theory of gravitation. Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. (n.d.). https://pweb.cfa.harvard.edu/research/science-field/einsteins-theory-gravitation 

  • Abbott, R., Abbott, T. D., et al. (2020). GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150M. American Physical Society. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102 

  • NASA. (n.d.-a). GCN - missions - LIGO/virgo/kagra. NASA. https://gcn.nasa.gov/missions/lvk

  • NASA. (2025a, March 20). NASA’s Hubble finds strong evidence for intermediate-mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri - NASA Science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-finds-strong-evidence-for-intermediate-mass-black-hole-in-omega-centauri/ 

  • NASA. (2024b, November 2). First image of a black hole - NASA science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/resource/first-image-of-a-black-hole/ 

  • Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of Our galaxy: Event horizon telescope. Harvard University. (n.d.). https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/astronomers-reveal-first-image-black-hole-heart-our-galaxy 

  • NASA. (2024a, July 27). Hubble’s Gravitational lens gallery - nasa science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/gallery/hubbles-gravitational-lens-gallery/ 

  • NASA. (2025c, June 3). Hubble quasars - NASA science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/science-behind-the-discoveries/hubble-quasars/ 

  • Info@noirlab.edu. (n.d.). Blog: Accretion Disks: How big are they really? First observations ever of the outskirts of a supermassive black hole’s accretion disk expand astronomers’ understanding of these fascinating structures. www.noirlab.edu. https://noirlab.edu/public/blog/accretion-disks/ 

  • NASA. (2025b, May 2). What happens when something gets “too close” to a black hole? - NASA science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/universe/what-happens-when-something-gets-too-close-to-a-black-hole/ 

  • Peißker, F., Zajaček, M., Labaj, M., Thomkins, L., Elbe, A., Eckart, A., Labadie, L., Karas, V., Sabha, N. B., Steiniger, L., & Melamed, M. (2024). The evaporating massive embedded stellar cluster IRS 13 close to sgr A*. II. Kinematic structure. The Astrophysical Journal, 970(1), 74. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad4098 

  • Information@eso.org. (n.d.). Comparison of the sizes of two black holes: M87* and sagittarius A*. www.eso.org. https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2208-eht-mwe/ 

  • Lea, R. (2025, July 14). Gravitational waves reveal most massive black hole merger ever detected - one “forbidden” by current models. Space. https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/gravitational-waves-reveal-most-massive-black-hole-merger-ever-detected-one-forbidden-by-current-models 

  • By NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska(CfA)/J.Bechtold(U.Arizona) - CHANDRA X-ray Observatory CXC Operated for NASA by SAO, url=http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1127/index.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8570320

Kara Nyhan

I am a graphic designer, film producing & director, and small business entrepreneur. My work focus is on creative and arts organizations and individuals, helping to create graphics, marketing materials, branding, and websites that fit their needs. I have a B.A. in Graphic Design and a M.B.A with a focus in entrepreneurship. Currently, I do business as Lore Art & Design.

https://www.lore-art-design.com
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Episode 19: Salt Overview