Relativistic Astrophysics

Outreach

Gallery

Over the years the group has produced many images from the simulations that we have carried out. Many of them have appeared on newspapers, magazines, calendars, and of course the internet; you can find many of them after googling for “black holes” or “neutron stars”. Some of these images have also won prestigious awards. However, there is no way better to let people know about our results than YouTube and to this scope we have even created a YouTube Channel.

There are two movies that are particularly well known. One movie  on gamma-ray bursts has received more than one hundred thousands of downloads (German version), while another movie on the tidal disruption of neutron stars has also attracted a lot of attention, eventually ending-up on the New York Times.

Producing a nice image is very satisfying and often the result of a team of inspiring people (E. Mueller, R. Kaehler, M. Koppitz)  to obtain the best combination of colors, transparencies and camera views. In these works we have benefitted from the expertise and tools developed by C. Hege at ZIB, Berlin. Below are some links to these images and movies; higher-resolution versions can be obtained if you send us an email.

Videos

As mentioned above, a lot of our simulations can be visualized, animated and put into comprehensive movies. Besides the scientific content – which you can (and should!) check out on our YouTube channel – we also value multimedia public outreach as a tool to integrate science education, communication and awareness.

Youtube Channel Highlights

Here you can find two of the most popular videos of our YouTube channel. The first one is a zoomed-in vision from optical telescope images to the heart of the galaxy M87, picturing what a black hole should look like as seen from Earth. In the second video we show raytracing of a black hole and its shadow.

Public Outreach

Learn more about the RelAstro group in the brief documentary and podcast by Hessen schafft Wissen below.