Light in the Darkness

As featured in THE EDGE OF ALL WE KNOW - the new Netflix documentary about Black Holes

For readers of Stephen Hawking, a fascinating account of the universe from the perspective of world-leading astrophysicist Heino Falcke, who took the first ever picture of a black hole.

10th April 2019: a global sensation. Heino Falcke, a man "working at the boundaries of his discipline and therefore at the limits of the universe" had used a network of telescopes spanning the entire planet to take the first picture of a black hole.

Light in the Darkness examines how mankind has always looked to the skies, mapping the journey from millennia ago when we turned our gaze to the heavens, to modern astrophysics. Heino Falcke and Jorg Romer entertainingly and compellingly chart the breakthrough research of Falcke's team, an unprecedented global community of international colleagues developing a telescope complex enough to look directly into a black hole - a hole where light vanishes, and time stops.

What does this development mean? Is this the beginning of a new physics? What can we learn from this about God, the world, and ourselves? For Falcke, astrophysics and metaphysics, science and faith, do not exclude one another. Black Hole is both a plea for curiosity and humility; it's interested in both what we know, and the mysteries that remain unsolved.

“Heino Falcke's book shows us how much stamina, curiosity, and fascination are required to persevere with a great scientific project against all naysayers”

Berliner Zeitung

The technological and logistical challenges that the scientists engaged in the endeavour to produce an image of a black hole were faced with, and how they finally succeeded in the Spring of 2017 - all of this Falcke, with the help of journalist Jörg Römer, has turned into a wonderful book.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Light in the Darkness succeeds in making the invisible visible and the unimaginable imaginable

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

Falcke asks that we take seriously what black holes have to tell us and that we accept the limits of our knowledge. You don't see it very often that a scientist shows such modesty at the moment of his greatest triumph. One of the many strengths of this book

Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Heino Falcke's very personal book provides surprisingly revealing insights into the life of a researcher. It introduces the reader to the early history of astronomy and its modern foundation and does so in an accessible way

Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag

Heino Falcke does ground-breaking research into the universe's most mysterious phenomenon and at the very edge of space and time

From the statement of the jury for the Spinoza Prize

For me, Heino Falcke is the Man of the Year 2019, and the image of the black hole in the M87 galaxy that he and his team produced immediately became iconic. But Falcke isn't only a fantastic scientist, but also a gifted storyteller

New Scientist (Dutch edition)

Whoever reads Falcke's book won't just dive into a breathtaking scientific story but will also be in awe of the man himself. In spite - or maybe precisely because? - of his rigorous scientific work, this practicing Christian and minister keeps a room for god in his heart

Neue Ruhr Zeitung

Falcke and Römer pull off the trick of combining an individual and a cosmic perspective in the most illuminating and entertaining fashion

Der Freitag

PROF. DR. HEINO FALCKE was born in 1966 in Cologne, Germany, is a highly decorated astrophysicist at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In 2011 he received the Spinoza Prize, the Netherlands' highest scientific award, and in 2021 he won the Henry Draper Medal. Both awards were for his idea of capturing an image of the black hole. This breakthrough was achieved by the international Event Horizon Telescope project, in which he held a leading role.

JORG ROMER was born in 1974, studied Mesoamerican studies, prehistory and ancient history, and Latin American studies in Hamburg, Germany, and is a science editor at Der Spiegel magazine.

For readers of Stephen Hawking, a fascinating account of the universe from the perspective of world-leading astrophysicist Heino Falcke, who took the first ever picture of a black hole. 10th April 2019: a global sensation. Heino Falcke, a man "working at the boundaries of his discipline and therefore at the limits of the universe" had used a network of telescopes spanning the entire planet to take the first picture of a black hole. Light in the Darkness examines how mankind has always looked to the skies, mapping the journey from millennia ago when we turned our gaze to the heavens, to modern astrophysics. Heino Falcke and Jorg Romer entertainingly and compellingly chart the breakthrough research of Falcke's team, an unprecedented global community of international colleagues developing a telescope complex enough to look directly into a black hole - a hole where light vanishes, and time stops.What does this development mean? Is this the beginning of a new physics? What can we learn from this about God, the world, and ourselves? For Falcke, astrophysics and metaphysics, science and faith, do not exclude one another. Black Hole is both a plea for curiosity and humility; it's interested in both what we know, and the mysteries that remain unsolved.

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