Summary of the GRAPPA retreat – April 3-4 2019 Sera has organized several retreats for her group in the past. We usually bike to this picturesque farm in Weesp and spend the day in a meeting room surrounded by sheep. We use this meeting to focus and plan our research efforts, practice giving elevator/grant pitches, and discussing common challenges and how to overcome them. For a nice overview, see this excellent blog post by Tobi Beuchert. While I always thought that GRAPPA wasn’t running as smoothly as possible, I was doubtful of a “GRAPPA retreat”, but at the very least, I would finally get to know everyone. When I arrived…

With my post, I would like to summarize work that my colleagues and I published recently (Beuchert et al. 2019, A&A, 610, 32). Let me start with a general introduction to provide the necessary context needed to understand what “jets” are. One of the major open questions in astrophysics deals with the most powerful objects in the Universe. We find them in the very centers of so-called Active Galaxies, where we expect at least one very heavy black hole (a Million to a Billion solar masses) to reside. In the consequence of its attractive force combined with friction occurring within the dense matter in orbit around it, matter will slowly spiral…

In this blog-post, I want to share my experience in the field of science communication and give you my personal perspective of things. I would be very happy to receive your feedback. Maybe, you disagree with what I say? Maybe, I missed something in my discussion? Feel free to contact me (t.beuchert@uva.nl) or post a comment below. Who we should communicate with and why “Science communication” is a term that one can write a lot about. I think what is important is that we would like to bridge between the broad public and the scientific community as well as within the scientific community itself. That way, we can establish links…

My name is Tobias Beuchert. I recently joined this group as a postdoc. My research interests are to expand our knowledge about accreting compact objects (black holes or neutron stars), their energy consumption and energy release. Disclaimer: this blogpost may contain one or two elements of slightly exaggerated content. This is an attempt to make the astonishing nature beyond our habitable horizon a little bit more accessible.  Imagine a vacuum cleaner that does not simply suck in matter, but feeds from an orbiting disk of dirt in your living room just like water forming a funnel before disappearing in the sink. Now, remove the bag inside the vacuum cleaner and…