Welcome to the Department of Astrophysics!

This decade is one of the most breathtaking in astronomical research! Spectacular discoveries are being made by the Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments, practically every month, and upset some of our theories completely and are splendid confirmations of other. If you are interested in white dwarfs, neutron stars and radio pulsars, gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves, or Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays you will find more information about these topics 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) or at Westerbork (Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope).

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 Christiaan Huygens Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics at the Radboud University in Nijmegen.

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. Teaching innovations have a high priority. During half of their time, students work in small groups on a project (project oriented teaching), during the other half, they participate in interactive lectures where individual contributions from the students play a prominent role. Directly from the beginning, students are trained at our own telescopes (in Dutch): a brand new 35 cm reflector and our century-old 20 cm refractor, both equipped with CCD-camera; a two-dish radio interferometer; and soon a solar telescope laboratory. 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 a three week observing programme abroad.