Dutch Black Hole Consortium
Welcome! We are a group of 30+ scientists, carrying out an interdisciplinary black hole research program throughout the Netherlands. In our project we will develop new telescope technologies, study the geology of the possible location for the Einstein Telescope (ET) and try to answer deep theoretical and astronomical questions about space and time. Our project is curiosity-driven and we want to share our enthusiasm with society as much as possible. Therefore we will also develop a citizen science program and an educational project for schoolchildren. Please have a look around on our website!
NEWS
Something that happens around black holes might be more fundamental...
Our consortium member Heino Falcke, together with Michael Wondrak and Walter van Suijlekom, gives a new perspective on Hawking radiation...
Athena Award for Monika
Our consortium member Monika Mościbrodzka (Radboud University) won another prize! This time the Athena Award for female researchers that stand out, being great role models for others
2.5 million for fast X-ray flashes
Our consortium member (and co-PI) Peter Jonker receives a major European research grant of 2.5 million euro for his research at fast X-ray flashes.
Measuring gravitational waves in space
A group of Dutch researchers working on space detector LISA have received twelve million euros. Among them is our consortium member Gijs Nelemans, astronomer at the SRON and RU. He talks about it on the radio, listen to it via the button below.
In depth articles
We now published a selection of populair science articles about recent discoveries in the field of black holes. Please read more about it via the button below. Enjoy!
Two prizes!
The British Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has individually honored our DBHC members Monika Mościbrodzka and Heino Falcke (both Radboud University) for their research into black holes.
New black hole found closest to Earth
A new black holes has been detected that is just 1500 light years away from earth...
Stefan about "The attraction of black holes"...
Read a recent NWO interview with project leader Stefan Vandoren below, and learn more about what we do and why we do it!
First picture of our 'own' black hole!
EHT made a 1st ever picture of the black hole located in the center our Milky Way...
ET gets 42 million euro's from NGF
The realization of the Einstein Telescope gets one step closer with this large contribution from the Dutch government...
Kickoff!
Watch our kickoff video of the consortium in Kerkrade on 13 September 2021 below...
Science
Our main goal is to better understand black holes. Why? Because black holes are at the edge of our current knowledge about physics. They bring together both the laws of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. But how this works exactly is still a mystery. So the black hole is where we expect to find something exciting and new... maybe even new physics!
Technology & geology
We want to study black holes using their signature found in gravitational waves. To do so, we want to develop a new type of gravitational wave detector - the Einstein Telescope (ET). The first step is an 'ET Pathfinder', a small version of the eventual ET. Also, we will need to do an extended geological study in Limburg to see if the soil is good enough to build the eventual ET on this location.
Education & public engagement
To involve the public as much as possible, we will develop an educational project for schoolchildren; a citizen science project for basically everyone in the Netherlands that likes to be involved in the project; and two museum exhibitions about black holes - one at museum Boerhaave in Leiden and one Discovery Museum in Kerkrade (Limburg).
The DBHC is made possible thanks to:
