Science Society Lecture - My part in the discovery of the black hole in Cygnus X-1

NASA, ESA, Martin Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)

Professor Paul Murdin Wolfson Senior Member and Senior Fellow Emeritus, Institute of Astronomy

Date 22/02/2019 at 17.45 Where Gatsby Room, Chancellor's Centre

Professor Paul Murdin will talk about his role in the discovery of the source of celestial X-rays in the constellation Cygnus.

I was a PhD student and a post-doctoral fellow around 1970 when I tracked down the then newly discovered source of celestial X-rays in the constellation Cygnus. I was able to provide a significant fact about it that proved it to be a stellar-sized black hole, the first to be identified.

In this talk I will reveal what (after I had followed a number of false trails) led me to it. I will discuss the scientific environment that put me in a position to make this identification, and the kick-start that the discovery gave to my scientific career, culminating in two aspirational pinnacles of recognition, having an asteroid named after me and being the subject of an inaccurate entry in Wikipedia.

Image: Artist's impression of Cygnus X-1, NASA, ESA, Martin Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)