Prof Heino Falcke

Prof. Astrophysics, columnist D/NL, bestseller author “Licht im Dunkeln/Light in the Darkness/Licht in de duisternis” about the first ever image of a black hole shadow with the Event Horizon Telescope, that I was deeply involved in. Work at Radboud University, Nijmegen (NL), live near Cologne (D). Am a happy European, Christian, dad, and granddad. #fedi22 #astronomy #science

Personal Website: https://HeinoFalcke.org
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2526-6724
University Website: https://www.ru.nl/en/people/falcke-h

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Last Notes

2026-03-25 06:57:02 UTC

… and this Thursday 18:00 UTC I will be giving a public lecture on how to image a black hole at Oxford university. Come by if you happen to be around.
(Presented to you by the BlackHolistic conference where we discuss a holistic view of black holes on all scales.)
https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/events/how-image-black-hole

2026-02-04 09:53:04 UTC

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Marjolijn Heemstra asked us to think about what the moon needs from us rather than to always think about what we need from the moon. It has been a cultural icon for humans through history and is now commercialised. Fun fact: For billions of years it has given us the time, now we try to define a Moon standard time zone and impose our time on it. The moon has its own time really. (4/4)

2026-02-04 09:51:01 UTC

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André Kuipers reminded us of the challenges of space flight. The US has still a long way to go before it can land people on the moon and China is well positioned already. Many countries are sending probes to the moon. Now China and the US have their own rules and blocks. So, it is again two blocks racing against each other. Hard to predict how it will end. There are space and moon treaties that need to be filled with life.
(3/4)

2026-02-04 09:47:35 UTC

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The moons is important for science, because it was a major factor in shaping the evolution and history of our earth. It gave us the length of day, the seasons, influenced our climate. Moon and Earth co-evolved but ended up very differently. Why and how? Traces of our past are preserved on the moon. (2/4)

2026-02-04 09:46:30 UTC

We discussed the return to the Moon with Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and space poet Marjolijn Heemstra at the royal academy of sciences in Amsterdam. Lots of science to be done there, but itis part of a new space race, with lots of political and commercial interests. Hence, we need to reclaim space as a public good and engage more in a public discourse about space. It is not just for nerds, because when the nerds get rich they rule the world & space.
@npub199m…c34y
@npub1ucg…wp4z
#Moon #Artemis #Space
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/011/702/029/723/527/original/d07df3a9d1fe292f.jpeg

2026-01-12 18:29:36 UTC

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You can do some of this with lists and so, but it’s an extra hurdle and not so flexible. Also, an unfiltered stream could also become a mental burden because you may not want to miss the few gems among them. Yes, you can just let things flow by, but not everybody may be so relaxed about it.

2026-01-12 18:27:40 UTC

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Well, everything is an algorithm even a simple timeline is one. I’m thinking more of ways to filter and sort your messages. For example, I do value feeds from news sites, however, they tend to flood you with messages. Also, some people put a lot of information out while others, you do care about post relatively little. A “river algorithm” will always benefit those who post a lot of stuff - it is just statistics. Eventually, you need a smart way to look at your messages.

2026-01-12 18:27:39 UTC

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2026-01-11 08:36:19 UTC

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I feel that before one can handle many newcomers (in your timeline) one needs to find an ethically clean and technically functional way to introduce some form of algorithmic sorting that is easy to use for normal users and not prone to manipulation. I fear that issue hasn’t been solved yet. Big influencers in the Fediverse are not sufficient. I have a hard time following more, as I miss the ones who I care about (and yes, I could make lists etc, but most people won’t ).

2026-01-07 09:01:08 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.online/@NOSRSS/115852818257695066
So, a Dutch court has declared a wedding invalid, since the official (for the day) used ChatGPT for his/her speech. It wasn’t according to the law and the wedding has to be repeated…
#note1q87…ea7k

2026-01-02 18:04:35 UTC

Gerade zufällig in Augsburg in der Bäckergasse entdeckt… #Openlab
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/826/819/011/496/382/original/24823daef6481d8b.jpeg

2025-12-29 13:43:01 UTC

My university really drives me nuts
a) please run every project by our administration even before you submit
b) unfortunately our administration is so understaffed that we cannot support the proposal
c) and please don’t do anything that could be a financial risk of any kind
d) in fact, please don’t do anything. Financially this is the most efficient option.
Glad I am on vacation and try to be relaxed 🙄
Heino

2025-12-24 13:37:29 UTC

How to ridicule your own message 😫
"France condemns the visa restriction measures taken by the United States against Thierry Breton and four other European figures. These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty,"
MACRON SAYS ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM X 🤦‍♂️
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/french-president-macron-slams-us-visa-ban-thierry-breton-others-2025-12-24/
#sigh

2025-12-16 15:50:56 UTC

National Geographic listed our first picture of a black hole among the top 25 science results of the past 25 years. I still remember that very moment, where I was nervously on stage in Brussels to present this image and nearly screwed up as by mind was a black hole for a short moment. I am deeply grateful to the @npub1xp4…48td and the people that made it happen. Many more results followed and there is more to come!
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/top-discoveries-in-the-last-25-years
#blackhole #astronomy #science #astrophysics
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/730/008/627/077/739/original/ff92374ea82538c9.jpeg

2025-07-07 07:34:25 UTC

I am looking for experts/#developers who are familiar with #ActivityPub and who might be willing to chat with me.
I have started talking with parts of my network (mainly in D and NL), about how we could make the #Fediverse more interesting for content providers and main stream media. This also means attracting ordinary users to join and to find fair and simple ways to support content providers (without #paywalls).
I have some ideas, but now need more expertise and a deeper look under the hood.

2025-07-03 12:40:44 UTC

I knew it!! Now ChatGPT has confirmed …😬🙄 #ai #chatgpt
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/789/342/112/704/712/original/4df770ce07634714.jpeg

2025-06-03 08:16:18 UTC

So, the Dutch cabinet just dissolved itself. It lasted much longer than anticipated and created more damage than what can be repaired in just a few weeks. Let’s hope for a more stable and more sensible government in the future. Latest polls still see the populists that have a history of running away from responsibility still as leading party, but with a majority for parties that can govern, so there is a silver lining. #Netherlands #Nederland

2025-05-26 11:03:28 UTC

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It is not far from the famous town “Berg en Dal” - (Mountain and Valley) near Nijmegen 😉

2025-05-26 10:43:21 UTC

Dutch bicycle enthusiasts may not have real mountains to train, but they have moraines from the ice age and some humor.
(On my way to the Dutch astronomers conference near Nijmegen).
#TourDeFrance #fahrrad #bycicle #netherlands
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/573/702/656/391/844/original/a54d59e153536a8a.jpeg

2025-05-26 05:53:42 UTC

Last week we submitted a step 1 proposal to ESA for an M-Class mission with a 100+ consortium. The idea is to make razor-sharp images of black holes and jets using an interferometer of three spacecraft at slightly different medium earth orbits. Satellite drift will allow us to measure all Fourier components of the image and achieve better than 3 micro-arcsecond resolution. Concept is based on EHI/Roelofs et al (2019) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019A%26A...625A.124R/abstract
#astrodon #blackholes #space #ESA
ThumpsPressed…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/572/542/168/626/799/original/0f0133e222e85894.jpeg

2025-05-04 13:05:30 UTC

Rückfahrt von Hannover: Zug ist pünktlich, Straßenbahn fährt und Rolltreppe läuft. Irgendwas stimmt hier nicht 🤔

2025-04-01 12:31:09 UTC

Digital sovereignty is becoming an important subject for the next strategy of my university [@Radboud_uni](https://mastodon.social/@Radboud_uni ). We want to become more independent from big tech. Good development!
From: @npub12ll…c32k
https://mstdn.social/@Voxweb/114262669575175037

2025-03-20 08:02:53 UTC

In the old days, we started to get excited when there was a five sigma detection (and probably 7 when you had to compare different experiments with different systematics) 🤔
#astrodon #astronomy #cosmology #astrophysics

2025-03-08 19:19:29 UTC

Traveling back from Netherlands to Germany in an ICE train and boarder police shouting to control passports. Sounds so medieval. I don’t feel any safer now …

2025-02-28 19:50:47 UTC

This betrayal on open stage, the free world will never forget.

2025-02-05 12:14:56 UTC

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BTW, I sent a message to the #IAU executive and asked them to think about how to secure critical science data infrastructure and databases. Not sure, they can do much on short notice, but I hope there will be more strategic planning. We will need redundant services and mirrors around the world. #astrodon #astronomy

2025-02-05 08:15:57 UTC

Dear astro folks,
with the current crackdown on science in the US, we probably cannot rely on all services provided to the scientific community from the US to function properly in the future and we may need to think about moving them elsewhere. What services would you think of that are essential. NASA funded ADS comes to my mind first. What else and what are the alternatives?
#astronomy #astrodon

2025-01-20 08:33:54 UTC

Mijn column in het Nederlands Dagblad: 'De waarheid is me te dierbaar om afhankelijk te zijn van een paar rare miljardairs op sociale media' https://www.nd.nl/opinie/opinie/1254273/de-waarheid-is-me-te-dierbaar-om-afhankelijk-te-zijn-van-een-
Waarom feiten belangrijk zijn, waarom wij niet naïef moeten zijn en waarom ik stopte met X en overstapte naar Mastodon (en niet #Bluesky 😉). #column #nederlandsdagblad #fediverse #mastodon
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/859/755/901/992/620/original/b70167e6f54f13ba.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/859/756/537/596/977/original/32d893650c92e47c.jpeg
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2024-12-06 07:08:26 UTC

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That is absolutely true on average. Very few professional astronomers actually still do observations themselves - most of that work is done for them.

2024-11-26 12:24:38 UTC

Hi Astronomy community in the Fediverse. I am wondering whether we should organize better. There is now an Astro starter pack at
@npub1kxu…9fca, but there may be more people out there.
Hence, I was wondering if we could find a (or more) volunteer(s) as curator/moderator who could collect names and think about growing the community a bit more.
Reboost in your network perhaps … #Astronomy #Astrodon #Astrophysics

2024-11-24 21:37:54 UTC

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In the end we should make our own list and distribute that - there were some attempts in the early days I remember

2024-11-06 20:07:49 UTC

So, the liberal finance minister of Germany has called for new elections and consequently was fired by the social democratic chancellor. This is essentially the end of the current government. Great timing 🙄
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/ampelkoalition-olaf-scholz-entlaesst-christian-lindner-a-b6705e89-7991-43fb-bc93-5cc0cb7d76f5

2024-09-27 14:09:27 UTC

So, the populist far-right PVV which was a small party prior to the last election in the Netherlands, became narrowly the biggest in the election, after the ruling liberal-conservative party made anti-immigration policy the biggest topic, thinking that would help them. Now the latest polls shows that the populist are by far the largest party in NL (after they declared an asylum crisis cut billions on innovation and woke universities). That was all so predictable… https://mastodon.online/@NOSRSS/113209791564979480

2024-09-21 18:21:20 UTC

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This is all triggered by the work of @npub18z6…rqfs and colleagues with #LOFAR https://www.astron.nl/starlink-satellites/

2024-09-21 18:11:31 UTC

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"The massive use and pollution of near-Earth space by individual companies is a new form of colonialism," the researcher rumbles. It's not just the night sky that is being changed for everyone, says Falcke. There is also a risk of catastrophic collisions in orbit. It would be a scenario that experts have been warning about for years: when satellites collide with other satellites, clouds of dangerous debris can form. This in turn increases the risk of further collisions. (2/3)

2024-09-21 18:11:31 UTC

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In any case, the mega-constellations are not just a problem for science, says Falcke: "Astronomers are the first to notice it now. By the time everyone notices, it will probably be too late." (3/3)

2024-09-21 18:11:30 UTC

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English version of my comments on #StarLink in #DerSpiegel #Astrodon #astronomy
“We can't rely on warm words from billionaires, we need international agreements and regulations," demands radio astronomer Heino Falcke from Radboud University in Nijmegen. (1/3)

2024-09-21 17:27:40 UTC

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»Die massive Nutzung und Verschmutzung des erdnahen Raumes durch einzelne Firmen ist eine neue Form des Kolonialismus«, grollt der Forscher. Nicht nur der Sternenhimmel werde für alle verändert, sagt Falcke. Auch die Gefahr katastrophaler Kollisionen im Orbit drohe.
Die Mega-Konstellationen seien jedenfalls nicht nur ein Problem für die Wissenschaft, sagt Falcke: »Astronomen sind die Ersten, die es jetzt merken. Wenn es dann irgendwann alle merken, ist es wahrscheinlich zu spät.« (2/2)

2024-09-21 17:27:40 UTC

Article in German news magazine #DerSpiegel about #StarLink spoiling radio sky. My strong quotes below (Paywall 🙄) …
https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/starlink-von-elon-musk-und-spacex-wie-die-satelliten-die-wissenschaft-behindern-a-765e30a1-a549-402e-829c-5f68eac3a501
#astrodon #astronomy #radioastronomy
“Wir können uns nicht auf warme Worte von Milliardären verlassen, wir brauchen internationale Absprachen und Regulierungen«, fordert der Radioastronom Heino Falcke von der Radboud University in Nijmegen. (1/2)

2024-09-13 17:24:28 UTC

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Link to original article is broken

2024-09-13 12:02:33 UTC

Help! My granddaughter asks why the spoon in a glass of water looks bigger than in air. How do I explain geometric optics and the reflective index of water to a 2 ½ year old … 😳🙈?
#physics #scicomm
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/130/138/042/178/740/original/fb3425ee9fcdd142.jpeg