That Is the subject of this month’s Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) meeting.   In conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory (EPMO), EVAS is offering a free public open house/star night on June 29^th, 2024 at the observatory.  The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes Valley.

Join astronomer, EVAS member and science communicator, John Ensworth as we embark on a fascinating journey through the enigmatic realm of black holes. In this presentation, we will delve into the current state of our understanding of black holes, unraveling their mind-boggling properties and the mysteries they hold. But that’s not all; we will also explore an intriguing and speculative concept: the possibility of a habitable region within a black hole, where an advanced civilization might thrive. The question that lingers: Can we ever meet them and reveal their existence to the world?

In the first part of the talk, we will examine the current state of black hole science, discussing how these cosmic behemoths form, their extreme gravitational pull, and the mind-warping phenomenon of spacetime distortion. We will explore the groundbreaking discoveries that have shaped our understanding of black holes, including the recent Event Horizon Telescope’s groundbreaking image of the supermassive black holes at the center of the M87 galaxy and our own galaxy’s A*.

Speaker John Ensworth

John Ensworth is currently a middle and high school teacher at his kid’s school, Resurrection Christian School, in Loveland. Previously, he was a Principal Investigator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate Independent Education Product Review for 17 years. His position at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies had him responsible for conducting reviews and helping with NASA education and outreach efforts with products that are scientifically accurate and appropriate for the educational audience they are intended for. In the 90’s Mr. Ensworth was a masters’ student and a PhD candidate in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. He teaches physics and mathematics at several online universities. He earned undergraduate degrees in physics and astronomy, and geography and meteorology with an emphasis in math and computer science. He is the owner and operator of the Cherrywood Observatory in Longmont, CO.

The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through our 16-inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.