Research Project

The Netherlands/Germany

Heino Falcke

2023 Balzan Prize for High resolution images: from planetary to cosmic objects

For his fundamental research that has made it possible to image the surroundings of a black hole with high precision, thanks to his leading role in the development of the Event Horizon Telescope, which was built specifically for this purpose, and provides the most accurate images of these celestial bodies to date not only in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, but also in distant galaxies such as the galaxy M87. This has made it possible to confirm Einstein’s general theory of relativity in situations where gravity is so strong that space-time is significantly curved (and to prove that supermassive black holes exist).