Related papers: High-resolution x-ray telescopes
We summarize the remarkable recent progress in ultra-high energy cosmic ray physics and astronomy enabled by the current generation of cosmic ray observatories. We discuss the primary objectives for future measurements and describe the…
Astrometry is one of the oldest branches of astronomy which measures the position, the proper motion and parallax of celestial objects. Following the Hipparcos and Gaia missions that have measured several billions of them using global…
Current efforts in observational cosmology are focused on characterizing the mass-energy content of the Universe. We present results from a geometric test based on strong lensing in galaxy clusters. Based on Hubble Space Telescope images…
In recent years, significant progress has been made in building new galaxy clusters samples, at low and high redshifts, from wide-area surveys, particularly exploiting the Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. A large effort is underway to…
The physics results of high energy gamma-ray astronomy are reported, emphasizing recent achievements with ground-based detectors. This includes some of the instrumental developments and latest projects. The fundamental contribution of the…
The advent of moderately high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy with Chandra and XMM promised to usher in a new age in the study of neutron stars: we thought we would study neutron stars like stars, with resolved absorption spectra revealing…
In recent years, observational $\gamma$-ray astronomy has seen a remarkable range of exciting new results in the high-energy and very-high energy regimes. Coupled with extensive theoretical and phenomenological studies of non-thermal…
A breakthrough in the sensitivity level of the hard X-/gamma-ray telescopes, which today are based on detectors that view the sky through (or not) coded masks, is expected when focusing optics will be available also in this energy range.…
This white paper highlights compact object and fundamental physics science opportunities afforded by high-throughput broadband (0.1-60 keV) X-ray polarization observations. X-ray polarimetry gives new observables with geometric information…
Major progresses have been made this last year towards a better knowledge of the invisible mass. Michel Spiro will talk in details about the micro-lensing experiments and their promising results; the ROSAT satellite has provided extended…
Cosmological probes based on galaxy clusters rely on cluster number counts and large-scale structure information. X-ray cluster surveys are well suited for this purpose, since they are far less affected than optical surveys by projection…
Strong lensing gravitational time delays are a powerful and cost effective probe of dark energy. Recent studies have shown that a single lens can provide a distance measurement with 6-7 % accuracy (including random and systematic…
Accretion is a universal astrophysical process that plays a key role in cosmic history, from the epoch of reionization to galaxy and stellar formation and evolution. Accreting stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries are one of the best…
We present some recent highlights and prospects for the study of hot astrophysical plasmas. Hot plasmas can be studied primarily through their X-ray emission and absorption. Most astrophysical objects, from solar system objects to the…
Galaxy-scale strong lensing is a powerful tool in Astrophysics and Cosmology, enabling studies of massive galaxies' internal structure, their formation and evolution, stellar initial mass function, and cosmological parameters. In this…
X-ray mirror fabrication for astronomy is challenging; this is due to the Wolter I optical geometry and the tight tolerances on roughness and form error to enable accurate and efficient X-ray reflection. The performance of an X-ray mirror,…
The field of high-energy neutrino astronomy has seen rapid progress over the last 15 years, with the development and operation of the first large-volume detectors. Here, we review the motivation for construction of these large instruments…
Clusters of galaxies are used in a variety of ways to do cosmology. Some of them are presented here. Their X-ray emitting gas allows us to determine the baryon fraction, dark matter distribution and the matter density $\Omega_{m}$ of the…
Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic eruptions known in the Universe. Instruments such as Compton-GRO/BATSE and the GRB monitor on BeppoSAX have detected more than 2700 GRBs and, although observational confirmation is still…
This paper was written as part of a book entitled: "Questions of Modern Cosmology - Galileo's Legacy" which is a celebrative book dedicated to Galileo Galilei. The book is published in 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, since it is…