This page answers questions about how the scientific method can deduce amazing things about our universe. How do we know that there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy? The short answer is that we can measure the properties of a black hole by watching how it affects things around it. How do we know there was a big bang? Just as a glowing ember in a pile of ash is a sign of fire in the recent past, the big bang has left behind evidence that is equally compelling.

We will cover topics that span black holes to the ghostly action of quantum mechanics and how we use the scientific method to understand the mysteries of things unseen.

A Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way

Our journey will start from Newton's law of gravity and how it was tested by earthbound mortals. I did the experiments in grad school, but don't trust me, you can do them too!

Then we investigate how this simple and elegant theory predicts the mass of the earth, the moon's motion about the earth and the earth's motion about the sun. Finally, by peering at the center of the Milky Way using telescopes that cut through the intervening dust, we can see the stars that orbit the central black hole. From the observed orbits, we can determine the mass and approximate size of the dark object. The evidence all points to a huge black hole. More

The Big Bang

Stay tuned....