Brian Cox

He was unable to write a funny joke for the introduction. The new series of the Infinite Monkey Cage. Science with funny bits. Science with bits. Funny science plus bits. So the reason that the Neanderthals died out, you're claiming, is because they weren't astronomers.

From BBC Radio 4, listen now on BBC Sounds.

From BBC Radio 4, listen now on BBC Sounds.

Exciting, I would say. I've been doing some work on black holes recently, which I hadn't started last time I saw you, actually. So I got interested in it. And the amount of the progress that's been made in trying to understand how they work. And a question that was posed by Stephen Hawking a long time ago, really 1970s, early 1980s, which is what happens to stuff that falls in?

Exciting, I would say. I've been doing some work on black holes recently, which I hadn't started last time I saw you, actually. So I got interested in it. And the amount of the progress that's been made in trying to understand how they work. And a question that was posed by Stephen Hawking a long time ago, really 1970s, early 1980s, which is what happens to stuff that falls in?

Exciting, I would say. I've been doing some work on black holes recently, which I hadn't started last time I saw you, actually. So I got interested in it. And the amount of the progress that's been made in trying to understand how they work. And a question that was posed by Stephen Hawking a long time ago, really 1970s, early 1980s, which is what happens to stuff that falls in?

The simplest question you could possibly ask. Right. There's progress being made on that now, which I think is profound and exciting.

The simplest question you could possibly ask. Right. There's progress being made on that now, which I think is profound and exciting.

The simplest question you could possibly ask. Right. There's progress being made on that now, which I think is profound and exciting.

I mean, it's mainly theoretical, although we have now got photographs of them. So we have two photographs, which are radio telescope photographs. One of the one in the center of our galaxy, which is a little one. It's called Sagittarius A star. It's a little supermassive black hole. So it's about 6 million times the mass of the sun, which makes it a little supermassive.

I mean, it's mainly theoretical, although we have now got photographs of them. So we have two photographs, which are radio telescope photographs. One of the one in the center of our galaxy, which is a little one. It's called Sagittarius A star. It's a little supermassive black hole. So it's about 6 million times the mass of the sun, which makes it a little supermassive.

I mean, it's mainly theoretical, although we have now got photographs of them. So we have two photographs, which are radio telescope photographs. One of the one in the center of our galaxy, which is a little one. It's called Sagittarius A star. It's a little supermassive black hole. So it's about 6 million times the mass of the sun, which makes it a little supermassive.

And then there's another one, the first photo that was taken. It's a collaboration called Event Horizon. And they took a photo of one in the galaxy M87, 55 million light years away. That thing is around 6 billion times the mass of the sun. I mean, imagine that, 6,000 million times more massive than our sun. Is that the largest black hole we've ever discovered?

And then there's another one, the first photo that was taken. It's a collaboration called Event Horizon. And they took a photo of one in the galaxy M87, 55 million light years away. That thing is around 6 billion times the mass of the sun. I mean, imagine that, 6,000 million times more massive than our sun. Is that the largest black hole we've ever discovered?

And then there's another one, the first photo that was taken. It's a collaboration called Event Horizon. And they took a photo of one in the galaxy M87, 55 million light years away. That thing is around 6 billion times the mass of the sun. I mean, imagine that, 6,000 million times more massive than our sun. Is that the largest black hole we've ever discovered?

No, there are bigger ones than that, but that's the scale of them. It's a big-ish one, that. But if you think about it, I mean, so there's a number. It's called the Schwarzschild radius of the thing.

No, there are bigger ones than that, but that's the scale of them. It's a big-ish one, that. But if you think about it, I mean, so there's a number. It's called the Schwarzschild radius of the thing.

No, there are bigger ones than that, but that's the scale of them. It's a big-ish one, that. But if you think about it, I mean, so there's a number. It's called the Schwarzschild radius of the thing.

So if you took our sun, which you can fit a million Earths inside, and collapsed it down to make a black hole, it would form a black hole when it shrunk within a radius of three kilometers, about two miles. So you've got to take this thing, which is what I have to convert from kilometers to miles. That's okay. 700,000 kilometers. It's about 500,000 miles radius or something like that, the sun.

So if you took our sun, which you can fit a million Earths inside, and collapsed it down to make a black hole, it would form a black hole when it shrunk within a radius of three kilometers, about two miles. So you've got to take this thing, which is what I have to convert from kilometers to miles. That's okay. 700,000 kilometers. It's about 500,000 miles radius or something like that, the sun.