{"id":136,"date":"2022-01-24T16:44:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T16:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/?page_id=136"},"modified":"2022-01-24T16:49:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T16:49:53","slug":"the-journey","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/the-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><em>by Sadie Jones <\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">super<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">massive<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">black<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">holes&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An actual thing,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">at the very centre,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">of every galaxy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">remarkable, colossal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One hundred million suns,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">squashed beyond physics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wheeled into the classroom, the large TV, the creaky wheels, our teacher, she pushes it and smiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m sat up front, first wooden bench, high on rickety wooden stool. Everyone is fixated in wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pure excitement of watching television in a science class. This is today\u2019s lesson, watching TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Energy grows in all of us, the expectation, the theatre of it. Trolley wheels stop creaking, centre stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The show,&nbsp;<em>Horizon<\/em>, recorded by the teacher last night, she just had to show it to us all. Today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The room is silent, brown wooden and cold \u2013 outside grey. Here we learn about Biology, normally, nature<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">but these blackholes on the screen, so big. They are nature too. Apparently,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">so the screen says. How can they be? Our very own galaxy,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">all the 100 billion galaxies, they all have one. A super massive black hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sarah shouts \u2018Is this right Miss? Is this really science?\u2019 Miss responds \u2018Yes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m totally transfixed. Behind me Kelly and Alex are giggling, some gossip,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">but I don\u2019t care. This new information, immense. My mind sparked. I didn\u2019t know!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Could our Milky Way galaxy really be the host of something so enormous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scale and mass of it. It\u2019s all so vast. Yet, it is\u2026 real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The centre of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can do it. You. Make maps of active galactic nuclei A.K.A supermassive black holes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See, examine. Be the first. You know, some have jets that extend for hundreds of light years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some don\u2019t. It\u2019s a mystery. You\u2019ll get paid \u2013 to look at space, explore, travel to big telescopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Be the first to unravel it all, analyse data \u2013 this puzzling light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You will be the centre. No-one else. No-one before you,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">not this galaxy anyway, not in this way. It\u2019s an enigma,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">this science,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">a dark art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Radio waves&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">extending,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">tracing jets.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">X-rays too,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">mapping&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the swirl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Become&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">an artist,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">a witch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interpret<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EM light.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The event<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Singularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It will be you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You, the centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Sadie Jones So, super massive black holes&nbsp; exist. An actual thing,&nbsp; at the very centre, of every galaxy: remarkable, &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/the-journey\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5030,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-136","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry",""],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/bhpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}