Black holes are the most extreme objects in the universe yet every galaxy has one at its centre. Buy Chris' book "Einstein's Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes" : https://geni.us/NL3M8Hu Chris Impey explores the questions this profound discovery can help answer and the role black holes have played in theoretical physics. Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor and deputy head of the astronomy department at the University of Arizona. His research has been supported by $18 million in grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation, and he has had 24 projects given time on astronomy's premier research facility, the Hubble Space Telescope. This talk was filmed in the Ri on 9 May 2019. --- A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially: Andrew McGhee, Dave Ostler, David Lindo, David Schick, Erik Shepherd, Greg Nagel, Ivan Korolev, Joe Godenzi, Julia Stone, Lasse T. Stendan, Lester Su, Osian Gwyn Williams, Paul Brown, Radu Tizu, Rebecca Pan, Robert Hillier, Robert Reinecke and Roger Baker. --- 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 Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy 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.