Related papers: Swift for blazars
The Swift spacecraft detects and autonomously observes ~100 Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) per year, ~96% of which are detected by the X-ray telescope (XRT). GRBs are accompanied by optical transients and the field of ground-based follow-up of…
Among the blazars detected by the Fermi satellite, we have selected the 23 blazars that in the three months of survey had an average gamma-ray luminosity above 1e48 erg/s. For 17 out of the 23 sources we found and analysed X-ray and…
We present the results of our optical identifications of four hard X-ray sources from the Swift all-sky survey. We obtained optical spectra for each of the program objects with the 6-m BTA telescope (Special Astrophysical Observatory,…
Studies of the distant Universe are providing key insights into our understanding of the formation of galaxies. The advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has significantly enhanced our observational capabilities, leading to an…
Since the launch of the highly successful and ongoing Swift mission, the field of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has undergone a revolution. The arcsecond GRB localizations available within just a few minutes of the GRB alert has signified the…
We aimed to detect a supernova (SN) shock breakout (SBO) with observations in time domain. The SBO marks the first escape of radiation from the blast wave that breaks through the photosphere of the star and launches the SN ejecta, and peaks…
We report here on the recent results of a monitoring campaign we have been carrying out with Swift/XRT on a sample of four Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients. The main goal of this large programme (with a net Swift/XRT exposure of 540 ks,…
Blazars are high-energy engines providing us natural laboratories to study particle acceleration, relativistic plasma processes, magnetic field dynamics, black hole physics. Key informations are provided by observations at high-energy (in…
Blazar flares seen by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope (Fermi LAT) are often followed up by Target of Opportunity (ToO) requests to the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (Swift). Using flares identified in the daily…
Stars in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can be ripped apart by the tidal forces of the black hole. The subsequent accretion of the stellar material causes a spectacular flare of electromagnetic radiation. Here,…
The currently accepted model for gamma-ray burst phenomena involves the violent formation of a rapidly rotating solar mass black hole. Gravitational waves should be associated with the black-hole formation, and their detection would permit…
The recently released 105-month {\it Swift}-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) all-sky hard X-ray survey catalog presents an opportunity to study astrophysical objects detected in the deepest look at the entire hard X-ray (14$-$195 keV) sky. Here…
We report here on the most recent results obtained on a new class of High Mass X-ray Binaries, the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients. Since October 2007, we have been performing a monitoring campaign with Swift of four SFXTs (IGRJ17544-2916,…
We derive the most up-to-date Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) blazar luminosity function in the 14-195 keV range, making use of a clean sample of 118 blazars detected in the BAT 105-month survey catalog, with newly obtained redshifts from…
The recent hard X-ray surveys performed by INTEGRAL and Swift have started to reveal the demographics of compact sources including Super-Massive Black Holes hosted in AGNs and have proven invaluable in tracking explosive events as the death…
The super-massive black-holes in the centers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are surrounded by obscuring matter that can block the nuclear radiation. Depending on the amount of blocked radiation, the flux from the AGN can be too faint to…
We present the most recent results from our investigation on Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients, a class of High-Mass X-ray Binaries, with a possible counterpart in the gamma-ray energy band. Since 2007 Swift has contributed to this new field…
The new high energy data coming mainly from the Fermi and Swift satellites and from the ground based Cerenkov telescopes are making possible to study not only the energetics of blazar jets, but also their connection to the associated…
In the introduction we give the main characteristics of the Swift mission outlining how the design was driven by the science goals and by the heritage we got from the Italian - Dutch satellite Beppo SAX. We show some of the new…
Until recently, symbiotic binary systems in which a white dwarf accretes from a red giant were thought to be mainly a soft X-ray population. Here we describe the detection with the X-ray Telescope (XRT) on the Swift satellite of nine white…