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X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory
In Development

Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (ATHENA)

ATHENA is an ESA large mission that is slated to launch in the early 2030s. The main science goals of ATHENA address the questions:
* How and why does ordinary matter assemble into the galaxies and galaxy clusters that we see today?
* How do black holes grow and influence their surroundings?
These will be accomplished thanks to a large X-ray mirror with a 5” point spread function that pivots to focus on onto one of two instruments: the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) which is an X-ray calorimeter with ~ 2 eV spectral resolution and the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) which is a large field of view (40’ x 40’) active pixel sensor.

Launch Date

November 2032

Class

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Website

ATHENA is an ESA large mission that is slated to launch in the early 2030s. The main science goals of ATHENA address the questions:
* How and why does ordinary matter assemble into the galaxies and galaxy clusters that we see today?
* How do black holes grow and influence their surroundings?
These will be accomplished thanks to a large X-ray mirror with a 5” point spread function that pivots to focus on onto one of two instruments: the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) which is an X-ray calorimeter with ~ 2 eV spectral resolution and the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) which is a large field of view (40’ x 40’) active pixel sensor.

Related Publications

2022. "New Measurement Resolves Key Astrophysical Fe XVII Oscillator Strength Problem.", Physical Review Letters, 129 (24): 245001 [10.1103/physrevlett.129.245001] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "X-ray spectra of the Fe-L complex. III. Systematic uncertainties in atomic data.", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 664 A62 [10.1051/0004-6361/202039943] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "X-Ray Photoabsorption of Density-sensitive Metastable States in Ne vii, Fe xxii, and Fe xxiii.", The Astrophysical Journal, 941 (2): 188 [10.3847/1538-4357/ac9c00] [Journal Article/Letter]