Delving into deep space

Two years ago while earning his PhD in physics, Fabio Pacucci led a team of Italian scientists who made
an amazing discovery: They found two black holes that may be the most distant and oldest yet
documented.

These black holes formed about 13 billion years ago, Pacucci explains, and played an important role in
the development of the universe. Astronomers are now fairly certain that a massive black hole lies at the
center of every galaxy.

Pacucci, 30, is a postdoctoral associate in Yale University’s Department of Physics and a member of the
Rotary Club of New Haven, Connecticut. He frequently gives talks about his research.

Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

Q: How did you become interested in the stars and planets?

A: When I was five years old, my parents gave me a little telescope. When I was 15, my father and I got
up in the middle of the night to observe a meteor shower. I asked him to take notes so I’d have statistics
about what we saw. At one point there were so many shooting stars – 15 or 20 per second for about 10
minutes – that we were just staring at the sky without taking notes. That’s one of the best memories I
have of my childhood, being with my father and watching this amazing show at night.

Q: How do you describe black holes to a nonscientist?

A: They are extremely massive objects with gravitational fields so intense that a ray of light can’t escape.
They are like a cosmic vacuum cleaner that swallows everything around it and lets nothing out.
Q: How did Rotary pull you into its orbit?

A: In high school I won a Rotary prize for my studies. That was my first encounter with Rotary. They
suggested I join Rotaract in my hometown, Taranto, but I was moving to Rome to go to university. Then I
went to Pisa to earn my PhD, and I was traveling a lot. But as soon as I came to New Haven I said, “I have
to do this!” A few months after my arrival here, I let the Rotarians in Taranto know that I’d joined Rotary,
finally, after 12 years.

Q: What is the focus of your research?

A: I study how black holes formed very early in the history of the universe. Understanding this helps us
understand how the first galaxies formed. We believe that the formation of galaxies and black holes
happened at the same time and m