Lecture | Oort lecture
Oort Lecture 2025: Finding Baby Black Holes with the James Webb Space Telescope
- Jenny Green, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University
- Date
- Wednesday 5 November 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Academiegebouw
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden - Room
- Groot Auditorium
Finding Baby Black Holes with the James Webb Space Telescope
Supermassive black holes, weighing billions of times more than our Sun, sit at the hearts of galaxies across the universe. But some of the most fundamental questions about them remain unsolved: When are these cosmic giants born? And in the grand story of the universe, which comAes first—the black hole that anchors a galaxy, or the galaxy that surrounds it?
In her public lecture, Leiden Observatory’s Oort professor of 2025, Jenny Greene, will tell you about the exciting (and surprising!) answers that the JWST is providing to these old questions.
After the lecture you are welcome to have a drink at the borrel in the Academy Building.
Registration is needed if you want to attend this lecture at the Academy Building in Leiden. The lecture will also be live streamed. To receive the link you need to register, as well.
The link for registration and the livestream are coming soon.
Unveiling the early universe
A supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being hundreds of thousands, or even millions to billions, times larger than the mass of the Sun. Black holes are astronomical objects that have undergone gravitational collapse, leaving behind a region of space from which nothing can escape, including light. Observational evidence indicates that almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center.
The James Webb Space Telescope is one of the most powerful, and sensitive observation instruments that humanity has ever sent into space. With its ability to look farther back in time than any telescope before, it is offering insights into how galaxies and their central black holes grew together in the early universe.
About Jenny Greene
Jenny Greene is Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University. She is notable for her work on supermassive black holes and the galaxies in which they reside. Her work also involves a partnership with the Princeton Gravity Initiative and she is director of Princeton's Prison Teaching Initiative. Earlier this year, she received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
Oort lecture: a more than 30 year old tradition
The yearly Oort lecture, in memory of the famous Dutch astronomer, is organized by the Jan Hendrik Oort Foundation and the Leiden Observatory. The Oort lecture is intended for a wide audience with an interest in astronomy and is given every year by a prominent astronomer. This lecture will be the 35th edition.