The Astronomical Observatory of Palermo hosts the meeting “Exploring the hot and energetic Universe” on the Athena X-ray observatory

Exploring the hot and energetic Universe

 

Astronomers from around the world are gathering in the city of Palermo, Italy on 24-27 September to discuss the extraordinary science possible using the European Space Agency Athena mission. Due for launch at the end of the next decade, Athena will revolutionize high-energy astrophysics.

 

Athena is an international collaboration between ESA, NASA and Japan, taking advantage of unique new technology to provide an unprecedented collecting area and combination of spatial and spectral resolution. Athena will impact on studies of the structure of the Universe, the properties of the most powerful cosmic sources and provide a key facility for multi-messenger astronomy by observing sources of gravitational waves and neutrinos.

 

The conference is organized and hosted by the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo at the Real Teatro Santa Cecilia, Piazza Teatro Santa Cecilia 1 and it is sponsored by the AHEAD (Integrated Activities for High Energy Astrophysics) project funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research Infrastructure Program. The AHEAD project is led by Professor Luigi Piro, from INAF, Istituto Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali (IAPS), Rome. “The AHEAD project provides the backbone for the High Energy Astrophysics community in Europe.” prof. Luigi Piro says “Our consortium comprises among the best centers in the field, with 26 institutes and one space company from 16 countries in Europe. We want to keep our community at the cutting edge of science and technology in this highly competing research field and to strengthen the infrastructure for the development of future space observatories, with particular regard to Athena, the future large space Observatory for X-ray astronomy”.

 

Luigi Piro, Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, INAF

 

by Mario Giuseppe Guarcello    ( follow mguarce)