For the first time on Israeli Space Week, the Israeli Space Agency at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology held a scientific conference: "Black Holes – From Theory to Observations". The conference, which was intended primarily for the academia in Israel, was also attended by world-leading researchers from abroad in this field, such as Roger Blandfold of Stanford University, Martha Volonteri of the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris, and Reinhard Genzel, who in 2020 won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of a black hole at the center of the galaxy, and at the conference, he revealed the advances in the study of the dynamics of stars that disintegrate near the event horizon of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
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The conference, which was held for the first time as part of the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference, the largest professional meetup in Israel in the field, was an opportunity to present the 200 visitors with a glimpse of some of the findings at the forefront of scientific research, especially since the launch of the James Webb space telescope about a year ago. Prof. Martha Volonteri, who reviewed the history of massive black holes, even expressed her excitement and her hope for the groundbreaking research on the verge of which the scientific world is currently standing, in preparation for further observations by the Space Telescope of black holes.
In preparation for additional scientific conferences
The conference "Black Holes – From Theory to Observations" is considered to be a rather unique event. Dr. Adi Ninio Greenberg, scientific advisor to the Israel Space Agency, who led the conference jointly with a scientific committee from all the universities in Israel that are involved in the field, explains that "scientific conferences that are designed to share information from the research frontier are typically the kind of events that are organized by research entities rather than governmental entities. However, we initiated this conference because it is an integral part of the vision and the strategy of the Israeli Space Agency to support innovation and development in the field of space, both in industry and in academia."
Alongside Israeli and foreign researchers who presented their research and reviewed the innovations in the field of black hole research, Dr. Ninio Greenberg added that the conference also served as a platform for the exhibition of 16 scientific posters, in which additional researchers presented their materials. The winning posters – one by Kramerwier Kaur of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the other by Barry Ginat, Tars Panamarov, Benes Kuksis and Hagai Peretz – dealt with the study of the dynamic friction that occurs in the hearts of galaxies. The success of the conference in attracting local and international academia will lead to the holding of additional conferences in the fields of space for the scientific community.
The Israeli Space Agency would like to thank the members of the scientific committee that led the conference – Zvi Piran (Chairperson), Avi Domb, Director of the Forum of Chief Scientists and the Ministry's Chief Scientist, Yoni Granot, Daphna Guetta, Doron Shlush, Maayan Somniak, Ilai Kovacs, Ari Laor, Barak Zakai and Dan Maoz – as well as the Israeli researchers and lecturers – Zvi Mazeh, Eran Ofek, Yair Harkabi, Elad Steinberg, Ofek Birnholtz, Hagai Peretz.
