Abstract

Invited Talk - Splinter NewAthena

Thursday, 14 September 2023, 15:00   (H 3025)

The NewAthena X-ray observatory: flagship science on the Energetic Universe

Francisco J. Carrera and the NewAthena Science Re-Definition Team
IFCA (CSIC-Universidad de Cantabria), Santander, Spain

Athena was a large mission selected by ESA within its Cosmic Vision Program to address the Hot and Energetic Universe scientific theme, to be launched in the mid 2030s. The NewAthena mission, Athena's successor undergoing a design-to-cost exercise, will be a large open X-ray observatory, operating in the 0.2-12 keV energy band, and offering spatially-resolved X-ray spectroscopy and deep wide-field X-ray spectral imaging, with a performance parameter space greatly exceeding that offered by current or planned X-ray observatories, and therefore expected to impact all branches of astrophysics. Part of that exercise is to revise and update the science objectives of the mission. Within the Energetic Universe theme (How do black holes grow and influence the Universe?), those objectives aim at answering three pressing questions: How does the physics of accretion onto super-massive black holes, stellar mass black holes and neutron star work? How are outflows launched from around supermassive black holes and how do they impact the evolution of galaxies since cosmic noon? How and when do supermassive black holes form and grow together with galaxies throughout cosmic history? In this talk I will show how NewAthena will make provide decisive answers to those questions in the multi-wavelength and multi-messenger facility-rich environment of the 2030s.