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TIMESLEDGER, APRIL 21, 2019 TIMESLEDGER.COM
Bayside professor marvels at fi rst images of black hole
BY JENNA BAGCAL
Q u e e n s b o r o u g h
Community College
professor Jillian
Bellovary became
interested in black holes
in college.
“I just think they’re cool
and they’re weird. When I
went to college, I thought I
wanted to be an engineer
but it’s not good for me. I
liked this ‘science stuff’ but
I just didn’t like building
things, so why don’t I
do science where I don’t
have to touch anything?”
Bellovary said. “I really
like using my imagination
to envision science that I’m
thinking about.”
So she went on to
pursue astrophysics,
physics, and philosophy
at the University of
Wi s c o n s i n -Ma d i s o n
and earned a Ph.D. in
astronomy from the
University of Washinton
in 2010. She is currently a
theoretical astrophysicist
as well as QCC
physics professor.
“I do computer
simulations of black holes,
so I don’t use telescopes.
Everything I do is on my
computer and I actually
use supercomputers from
NASA to do a lot of the
simulations that takes them
many months to finish
running,” said Bellovary. “I
study how black holes form
in the early universe and
how they evolve along with
the galaxy they live in and
I try and make predictions
for people with telescopes
and also for gravitational
wave observatories.”
Some of the
organizations she makes
predictions for include
Laser Interferometer
G r av i t a t i on a l -Wav e
Observatories (LIGO) in
Louisiana, Washington
and Italy and a European
space agency called Laser
Interferometer Space
Antenna (LISA).
“That’s the one
I’m making all those
predictions for because
that one, we kind of have
no idea what we’re gonna
see. So I’m like ‘hey, maybe
you’ll see all of this stuff’
and it’s not going to launch
for another 15 years or so.
So I have a lot of time to
make predictions and I’m
hoping that some of the
predictions I make are
right,” she said.
When she saw the
first images of the black
hole, which was captured
thanks to the algorithm of
American computer
scientist Katie Bouman,
Bellovary was excited to
find out that her predictions
for what it would look like
matched the image.
“It was so cool because it
means that we understand
enough about black holes
and about science to
predict what we’re gonna
see,” Bellovary said. “But
also I think as they keep
getting more and more
images of it, they’re gonna
be able to get better and
better detail and we’ll
probably learn some really
unexpected things.”
Though she does not
get the opportunity to go
in-depth with her students
about black holes, Bellovary
does touch on in during her
lessons with astronomy
students taking Space,
Astronomy and Our
Universe Laboratory.
“It was super exciting
to see how much work they
put into it, that it was a
woman that kind of made
it her career mission and
to succeed at that,” said
one Bellovary’s students
Sara Beth Clayton. “But
also Professor Bellovary
talked about that being
her specialty and we had
discussed it in class before
that information hit the
news last week.”
Part of the astronomy
class allows students to
use QCC’s state-of-the-art
astronomy observatory,
which was funded by Dr.
Dinah L. Moché, students
and members of the
Queens community.
Students are able to
observe planets, stars
and nebulas using a
16-inch Cassegrain
telescope, the largest in a
Queens college.
“They explain how the
telescope works and what
they’re doing, where they’re
pointing it. When they
position it, everybody gets
to look as long as they like,”
said Clayton who got to see
a nebula, Mars and the
moon’s surface.
Dr. Jillian Bellovary
Photo credit: Leo Correa/Queensborough Community College
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