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.
Congratulations to Thomas Dauser, who receives the 2024 HEAD Innovation Prize from the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
The X-IFU has recently undergone several changes in its design architecture. An important work ahead of the launch is to analyse, verify and understand the X-IFU capabilities when observing. That’s why the instrument response files have been updated.
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.
"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
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