2021_09_16 Reinhard Genzel: 'Galaxies and Massive Black Holes'

The discovery of the Quasars in the 1960s led to the 'massive black hole paradigm' in which most galaxies host massive black holes of masses between millions to billions of solar masses at their nuclei, which can become active galactic nuclei and quasars when they accrete gas and stars rapidly. I will discuss the major progress that has happened in the last decades to prove the massive black hole paradigm through ever more detailed, high resolution observations, in the center of our own Galaxy, as well as in external galaxies and even in distant quasars. In the Galactic Center, such high-resolution observations can also be used to test General Relativity in the regime of large masses and curvatures.