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black holes are the strongest test of

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what the theory of gravity really is

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space is just bent and warped and

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twisted in some incredibly complex way

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and if one could only understand that

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one would have a fundamental insight

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into the theory of gravity

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in the past five years our knowledge of

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black holes has really exploded

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by using space-based and ground-based

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telescopes covering the full

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electromagnetic spectrum astronomers

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have found that black holes are

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everywhere

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they come in a variety of sizes and they

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are integral to the formation of

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galaxies

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one way to find a black hole is to look

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for x-rays that are produced by matter

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caught up in its violent and extreme

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environment

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in fact we are extremely close to

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looking at the very edge of a black hole

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something einstein never imagined

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what happens to matter and energy as it

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moves closer to a black hole

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and crosses the event horizon

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the theoretical border from which

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nothing can escape

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does time really come to a standstill

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will we see a breakdown in general

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relativity in the environment of extreme

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gravity general relativity makes

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specific predictions about matter and

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energy close to a black hole

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if upon close scrutiny we see the

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slightest deviation between theory and

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observation

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we will understand limitations in

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einstein's equations

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two space missions will take us closer

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to a black hole event horizon than we've

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ever been

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lisa a joint nasa european mission now

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and formulation will listen for

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gravitational waves created by merging

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black holes

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now we're talking about opening a window

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that's not even

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based on electromagnetism it's a window

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that's based on gravitational radiation

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the gravity wave spectrum

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is kind of a new and really unexplored

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frontier

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no one's directly detected gravity waves

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as we start to open up this next

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frontier which i think many of us think

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of as the great frontier for 21st

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century astronomy

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i think we're going to learn about

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different things from different parts of

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that spectrum

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another mission will give us a closer

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look at black holes and probe the

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mystery of dark energy

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constellation x an x-ray observatory

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will make movies of the material falling

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into a black hole

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constellation x will let us watch how

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that matter approaches the event horizon

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and how from our perspective time creeps

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to a halt

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we'll be able to watch the final x-ray

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flicker of light as matter plunges into

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the black hole and disappears forever

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this is where we'll be able to probe the

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most extreme conditions of gravity that

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we know of and really put einstein's

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theories to the test

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in 1992 the nasa kobe mission discovered

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slight temperature fluctuations in the

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nearly uniform cosmic microwave

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background

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that's the blanket of light encompassing

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the universe that is the after glow of

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the big bang

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kobe's successor nasa's wmap mission

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produced this much higher resolution

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image of the cosmic microwave background

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becoming one of the most scientifically

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significant images of cosmology today

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we look at the wmap data

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much of what we see in the data has the

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imprint of the physical processes that

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took place about 300 000 years after the

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big bang

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the basic properties that we've inferred

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from this is that the geometry of the

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universe is flat or nearly flat we also

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know it's pretty old today we know it's

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about 13.6 13.7 billion years old and

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the stars formed about 100 million years

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after the big bang

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the information obtained by wmap and

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proposed missions will help distinguish

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between competing theories of what

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sparked inflation and the big bang

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einstein hoped to fold the quantum force

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of electromagnetism into general

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relativity and to find a unified theory

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much of what he could not answer and

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struggled with until the day he died

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remains unanswered today

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these questions about dark energy black

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holes the big bang and the nature of

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gravity have come to define the cutting

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edge

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the next revolution that i think could

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be

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in the not too distant future

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is to really learn what space and time

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actually are and i think as to others

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that we will learn that space and time

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are not fundamental there are more

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fundamental

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entities that make up space and time and

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when we can figure out what they are the

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atoms if you will of space and time

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themselves i think that will take our

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understanding of the universe to a

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completely new level and i think that

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discovery may be on the horizon

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like einstein's theories modern theories

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make fantastic predictions that seem

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hard to believe

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unseen dimensions and entire universes

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beyond our own

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we must find facts to confront and guide

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these new theories

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thus we follow matter to the very brink

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of black holes and detect particles of

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time left over from the beginning of the

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universe

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and we will use breakthrough

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technologies to see beyond the vision of