The Netherlands/Germany

Heino Falcke

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

For being the first to envision imaging the immediate surroundings of a black hole, and for his leadership of the “Event Horizon Telescope”, specifically designed for this purpose. This telescope produced the sharpest images ever of what surrounds black holes in the distant galaxy known as M87 and in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, thereby validating Einstein’s General Relativity in situations where gravity is so strong that spacetime is significantly curved.