About the Author

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.

Reviews

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*