Faculty of Science
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Organisation/Mission

Welcome to the Department of Astrophysics!

This decade is one of the most breathtaking in astronomical research! Spectacular discoveries are being made practically every month, and upset some of our theories completely and are splendid confirmations of other.

You can find more about:

  • white dwarfs,
  • neutron stars,
  • black holes,
  • gravitational waves,
  • ultra-high energy Cosmic Rays,

on our website.

The “instruments” which we are using are High Energy Plasma Astrophysics, Particle Astrophysics, Cosmic MagnetoHydroDynamics, and, of course, modern telescopes such as those on La Palma (UK/NL collaboration), in Chile (European Southern Observatory), at Westerbork (Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope), the LOFAR telescope, the Event Horizon Telescope, the Pierre Auger Observatory and the BlackGEM telescope array.

Our department is a young one, and is growing fast. We participate in NOVA, the Dutch Research School for Astronomy, a cooperation between the Dutch astronomical institutes, and in the Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics at the Radboud University in Nijmegen.

Bachelor and Master programmes

We offer an astronomy programme both at the Bachelor and Master levels. The Bachelors programme has 56 ECTS in astronomy over the first three years of 180 ECTS altogether. Immediately from the start in the first year, students are trained at our own telescopes: a brand new 35 cm reflector and our century-old 20 cm refractor, both equipped with CCD-cameras; a two-dish radio interferometer; our own cosmic-ray scintillator/radio array. Development of the students' individual creativity and interests are a central theme of our teaching.

Our Masters programme specialises in High Energy Astrophysics, and prepares for astronomers in a large number of professions: from pure research to educational and more general professions. All our Master students take part in an observing programme abroad.

In case you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of us or another department member.