Unveiling the secrets of the hot and energetic Universe

Learn more

The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)

The X-IFU is a revolutionary X-ray spectrometer, one of the two instruments of the European Space Agency’s future space telescope, Athena. It will observe with X-ray eyes, the hot and energetic Universe, a world of clusters of galaxies, black holes, and exploding stars.

Read more

Find out about this revolutionary instrument of ESA’s Athena mission

Latest News

People of X-IFU – Interview with Simon BANDLER

Simon Bandler is Project manager for the U.S. contribution to the X-IFU & Research Astrophysicist at NASA. He shares with us his background in low-temperature physics detection and explains his role in the project.

Read more

A new Cryogenic Workshop and NASA’s 4-K Cooler contribution

A new cryogenic workshop, the first gathering of all the main parties in the newly reformulated X-IFU cooling chain, took place January 31st through February 2nd in Toulouse, at CNES.

Read more

Winner of the Women Astronomer Infographic Contest

The result of the Women Astronomer Infographic contest to celebrate the International Day of Girls and Women in Science is out! The contest aimed to showcase the invaluable contributions of women astronomers through engaging infographics.

Read more

People of X-IFU

"By improving spectral and angular resolutions, with such a large effective area, Athena X-IFU will represent a major step for X-ray astronomy."

Jiri Svoboda

Astronomer at the Astronomic Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

"When Athena X-IFU will be launched, we will see things humans never observed before."

Kazuhisa Mitsuda

Board member

"Once Athena X-IFU will be launched, observation of the sky will be taken to a whole new level. The instrument should be able to reveal the origin of the universe!"

Teresa Mineo

Physicist at INAF

Stay in the loop!

Get the Athena X-IFU newsletter