November 28, 2013

A New View into the Hot and Energetic Universe


ESA selects science theme for its next large mission

At its meeting in Paris today, the Science Programme Committee of the European Space Agency (ESA) selected the “The Hot and Energetic Universe” as the theme for its next Large (L-class) mission, which is expected to be launched in 2028. The theme was proposed by an international collaboration led by Kirpal Nandra, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE). Having made a compelling case for this exciting topic, the same team is now poised to propose a new mission concept to address some of the most pressing questions in modern astrophysics. The Advanced Telescope for High-energy Astrophysics (Athena) would provide the necessary angular and spectral resolution, throughput, detection sensitivity, and survey grasp to revolutionize our understanding of why the Universe looks the way it does.