Title: A HIGH-ENERGY REVOLUTION IN THE SKY

Speaker:Prof. G.F. Bignami

Host: Prof. ZHANG Shuangnan

Time: 10:00, September 13, 2012

Place: Room C305, IHEP Main Building

Abstract:

It all started 50 years ago, as soon as space astronomy came of age. X-ray astronomy started in 1962, with the first detection of an extrasolar X-ray source, ScoX-1. The first gamma-ray map of the sky, produced by OSO-3, was published in 1972 when the SAS-2 satellite was launched.

Now are are living through a golden age of high-energy astrophysics with a very successful series of X-and gamma-ray observatories operational in orbit. The accomplishements of XMM-Newton, Chandra, Integral, Swift, Agile and Fermi will be highlighted with special enphasis on the recent results on Neutron Stars (NSs)

NSs emit the vast majority of their energy in gamma-rays, more so than in X-rays. Not only that: after the first case of Geminga, the Fermi Observatory is telling us that many, maybe the majority, of NSs in our Galaxy emit only in gamma-rays and are invisible at other wavelengths. Such a high-energy revolution will lead us to the understanding of NS physics.

About the speaker:

G.F. Bignami is a well-known professor of Astronomy, Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori, Pavia, and an Associate Scientist, INAF, Milan, Italy. He is the current president of COSPAR, the largest international organization on space research.

2003-2007: Director of the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, an “Unitè Mixte de Recherche” of the French CNRS and of the University of Toulouse. 2004-2007: Chair of ESA’s Space Science Advisory Committee.

2007-2009: President of the Italian Space Agency.

2009-now: President of the Scientific Council of the “Groupment d’Interet Scientifique” called “Physique des deuxInfinis”, composed by 19 astronomy and physics Institutes in the Ile de France region around Paris.