Why does modern astronomy often sound like science fiction? And how do objects like supermassive black holes, wormholes and warp drives fit into our current understanding of physics? Watch the Q&A here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg8jxhCO0m8 Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe This event was recorded at the Royal Institution on 23 March 2023. Much of modern astronomy sounds a lot like science fiction - gravitational ripples in the fabric of spacetime, supermassive black holes hiding at the centre of galaxies, habitable exoplanets within the reach of our telescopes…are there any limits to what is out there? Whilst largely considered to be firmly in the category of fiction, such concepts are nevertheless based on solid scientific ideas about the curvature of spacetime from Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This theory is known to be hugely counter-intuitive, giving rise to singularities, event horizons and time dilation around black holes. In strong gravity regimes things behave very differently to the low gravity environment on the Earth, so our intuition, which is based on our everyday experience, can mislead us. Studying these objects can help us to challenge our understanding of what is “natural”, and better understand the extreme limits of gravitational theory. Katy Clough is a lecturer and Ernest Rutherford Fellow in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London. She studies systems with strong dynamical gravity using numerical simulations, including black holes and the early universe. She is part of the fundamental physics working group for the future space based gravitational wave detector, LISA. Katy’s first degree was in Engineering and her degree in Physics was obtained from the Open University whilst working as a chartered accountant. After her PhD at King’s College London she worked in Goettingen in Germany and in Oxford University in postdoctoral positions. She believes that science is for everyone and that there is no right way to be a scientist. -- A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially: modsiw, Anton Ragin, Edward Unthank, Robert L Winer, Andy Carpenter, William Hudson Don McLaughlin, efkinel lo, Martin Paull, Ben Wynne-Simmons, Ivo Danihelka, Kevin Winoto, Jonathan Killin, Stephan Giersche, William Billy Robillard, Jeffrey Schweitzer, Frances Dunne, jonas.app, Tim Karr, Alan Latteri, David Crowner, Matt Townsend, THOMAS N TAMADA, Andrew McGhee, Paul Brown, David Schick, Dave Ostler, Osian Gwyn Williams, David Lindo, Roger Baker, Rebecca Pan -- The Ri is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ri_science Listen to the Ri podcast: https://anchor.fm/ri-science-podcast Our editorial policy: https://www.rigb.org/editing-ri-talks-and-moderating-comments Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.