Every child deserves an unforgettable science experience during her/his school career. This ambition drives the NOVA Mobile Planetarium project. Since 2010, more than 400,000 primary and secondary school pupils have experienced a live and interactive journey through space in an inflatable planetarium. Research shows that the planetarium misses many schools in rural areas and poorer neighbourhoods in cities. To increase inclusiveness, these areas will be directly approached and offered free planetarium visits. Planetarium lessons will be improved to create a new dialogue-format more appropriate for the diverse target group and planetarium staff will be trained accordingly.

The DBHC is a group of 30+ scientists with an interdisciplinary research program on black holes. In our project we develop new technologies to observe black holes with telescopes - both above ground (Event Horizon Telescope) and underground (Einstein Telescope). In order to determine the correct location for the Einstein Telescope, we simultaneously study the geology of the Limburger soil. Above all, we try to answer deep theoretical and astronomical questions about space and time! There will also be a public app, which anyone can use to hunt for black holes, and an educational project for students. Read more: www.dbhc.nl

We have used different simulations and new observational data to study the evolution of binary stars to become double black holes or neutron stars that we observe as sources of gravitational waves. The past years we have realised several breakthroughs, both in terms of simulations as well as discoveries of new objects. However, the covid pandemic also made some parts of the project delayed, so those will be finished later.

One of the long-standing questions in high energy astrophysics is how gravitational binding energy is released and converted into an observable form. Black holes represent the deepest gravitational wells in the universe; hence, the energy release near them is the most efficient. Both theoretically and observationally, the study of gas flows near these extreme objects is on the verge of a breakthrough. In theoretical works, tremendous progresses have been made in high performance computations which allow now for detailed dynamical models of accretion flows and jets. In observational works, the Event Horizon Telescope will soon produce resolved images of the black holes and their close environment in the centers of the galaxy M87 and the Milky Way, for the first time in history. Numerical simulations have reached the level of sophistication in which they are capable of explaining observations and making new predictions. The aim of this project is to improve the understanding of the relation between the sophisticated numerical models of accretion flows onto black holes and the observed electromagnetic radiations. We will achieved this by modeling and studying the observed polarization of electromagnetic waves produced in a black hole environment. The information hidden in polarized components of light enables us to break the parameter degeneracy in the radiating electron heating prescription models and magnetic field topology. Our main objective is to understand how binding gravitational energy is released near black holes. The result will provide a key constrain in the theory of accretion flows onto black holes.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is preparing to capture not only images of supermassive black holes but also dynamic recordings (movies). These will allow us, for the first time, to study the time variability of these mysterious objects, such as the occurrence of massive outbursts (flares) similar to solar flares. To understand these phenomena, we use state-of-the-art computer simulations of the plasma and magnetic fields surrounding the black hole. Our primary focus is on the influence of the black hole’s rotation (spin), the missing link needed to further test our theories of black holes and gravity.