Black Holes & Us – May 27

Wonderfest joins the Commonwealth Club in presenting astrophysicist Heino Falcke, live-streamed from Berlin, Germany. Professor Falcke’s new book Light in the Darkness tells the story of our first direct image of a black hole, and what its significance for humanity might be. Dr. Falcke ponders why black holes are so difficult for most of us to understand, comparing that to our inability to envision our own inevitable death. He regards black holes as exquisite representations of fear, death, and — surprisingly — the divine. Empirical and profound, Falcke examines both the physical nature and the spiritual meaning of black holes, which he calls “the epitome of merciless destruction.”

Heino Falcke is Professor of Astroparticle Physics and Radio Astronomy at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Germany. He chaired the Event Horizon Telescope Council when the EHT captured our first black hole image. Prof. Falcke is recipient of the Henry Draper medal of the US National Academy of Sciences, and the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific honor of the Netherlands.