Did the black hole come first or did the galaxy come first?

Yeah, it's like the astrophysical chicken or the egg.

Dark matter. Let's face it, it's not the greatest name.

All my mates are out right now in the pub and I'm stood on the top of the physics department, broom in hand.

I thought nothing could escape a black hole.

So what is going on there? Because I am confused.

It's going, it's going. Everybody look quick. Astronomers assemble.

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Nevermind the Space Rocks, celebrating 200 years

of the Royal Astronomical Society with me, Izzy Clark and Dr. Becky Smethurst.

That's me. I am an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford,

and I spend my days researching galaxies and black holes.

And I'm a science journalist who is constantly surprised by space.

Every month we'll be taking you through the universe with the latest research,

history from the society's archives, and astronomy you can do

from home. Plus, we're going to be going through all of the suggestions that you sent in for the

name of this podcast, but especially we're going to be talking science. And this month, it's black

holes and dark matter, so it's all the stuff we can't see. Probably a good one to start on, given that

this is completely audio. And something else that you can't see is that we're recording this in the

Royal Astronomical Society's Council Room. It's absolutely stunning. It really is. I love this place so

much. Like every direction you look in, there's books. It's just books as far as the eye can see they even have one

of those like beauty and the beast style ladders that i feel like i should just get on and start swinging

around the room and pulling off a random nature book from 1950 to see what science it's got in there

...