John Hutchings
He was the first to discover a black hole outside our galaxy
John Barrie Hutchings was born in 1941 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Hutchings specializes in the atmospheres of OB stars (very hot blue stars). In 1968, he discovered that these stars, which have very thick atmospheres, generate hot stellar winds. In 1983, after ten years of research on binary stars, he made a major discovery: Hutchings, along with coworkers Anne Cowley and David Crampton, identified the first black hole located outside our galaxy.
Not even one year later, in 1984, he made a second remarkable discovery by proving, along with David Crampton and Bruce Campbell, that quasars are the centres of active galaxies. Active galaxies are those with centres marked by enormous energy outputs. Over the years, the study of quasars became one of Hutchings specialties.
