Nov 7
The Nickelodeon Columbia, SC
TicketsEnrique Lopez Rodriguez
USC Professor of Astrophysics
Interstellar— Fact and Fiction of Black Holes in the Movies
Program Description
"Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar sends a crew through a wormhole and to the edge of Gargantua, a supermassive black hole whose stunning on-screen image was built with help from Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne. But how much of what we see is real science, and where does Hollywood take creative liberties?
Join us for a screening followed by a conversation with Dr. Enrique Lopez Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Lopez Rodriguez studies how magnetic fields shape the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time and how they influence the way supermassive black holes pull in surrounding matter. He’ll help us separate fact from fiction and explore what astronomers actually know about the most mysterious objects in the universe."
Film Synopsis
A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.
In Earth's future, a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl are slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable. Professor Brand (Michael Caine), a brilliant NASA physicist, is working on plans to save mankind by transporting Earth's population to a new home via a wormhole. But first, Brand must send former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and a team of researchers through the wormhole and across the galaxy to find out which of three planets could be mankind's new home.
Photo courtesy of PHOTOFEST
About the Speaker
Dr. Enrique Lopez Rodriguez is an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of South Carolina. His research focused on the study of the effect of magnetic fields on the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time and how these magnetic fields affect the accretion processes onto supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies.