Black holes, quasars and the violent fate of the Milky Way

An evening with Professor Clive Tadhunter, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy – One of the most exciting results in astrophysics over the last 25 years has been the discovery of supermassive black holes at the centres of most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way. When galaxies collide and merge together their supermassive black holes eat large amounts of gas. This transforms them into the most luminous objects in the Universe – quasars – which shine as brightly as a trillion stars like the Sun. Quasars are so powerful that they can rip apart their host galaxies, stopping them from forming new stars. In this talk I will review the evidence for supermassive black holes in galaxies, discuss how they are linked to  quasars, and describe how these exotic objects may be involved to the eventual fate of the Milky Way.