communication

From July 2023 to November 2023, the Athena mission and its instruments underwent a reformulation phase. This led to a modification of certain X-IFU performances, detailed in the new scientific reference publication on the instrument. The publication has just been published in Experimental Astronomy.

From the calcium in our bones to the iron in our blood, and oxygen we breathe, are largely the result of stellar processes, particularly supernovae. In the well known sentence  “we are all made of stars,” we acknowledge our cosmic heritage and the role of these stellar explosions in making life possible.

L’événement a eu lieu le vendredi 4 octobre de 18h à minuit à la Cité de l’espace.

Massimo Cappi, Chair of the X-IFU Science Advisory Team (XSAT) and astrophysicist at INAF-OAS Bologna, looks back on his career and explains his role in the project.

Find the latest scientific publications related to X-IFU for the period May, June & July 2024 and links to ArXiv and Springer.

We were represented at the Communicating Astronomy with the Public Conference, held in Toulouse, Cité de l’espace on 24—28 June 2024 and online. It is the only large-scale and international conference for astronomy communication.

The publication is freely available on ArXiv.

It is a technical event for ground-based, airborne, and space-based telescopes, and their supporting instrumentation. 

A key design point on the 4K Core Demonstration Model was held on April 30 at CNES. The main objective was to present the demonstrator’s preliminary design, development plan and test plan, and to check the demonstrator’s compatibility with the recently delivered test cryostat.

Aurora Simionescu is co-Principal Investigator for the NewAthena X-IFU project & Research Scientist at SRON, Netherlands Institute for Space Research. In this interview, she looks back on her career and her new role as Co-PI.

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.