webinars_header

NewAthena X-ray Advances: NASST and ACO Science Webinars

Beginning in 2022, the ASST and ACO launched the “Athena X-ray Advances: ASST & ACO Science Webinars”, which were reformulated in November 2023 as “NewAthena X-ray Advances: NASST & ACO Science Webinars.” These science seminars focus on the scientific case for NewAthena and aim to keep the NewAthena community informed about exciting developments relevant to Athena’s capabilities. The series is primarily intended for members of the NewAthena community but is open to the wider astronomy community.

Each webinar in the series is broadcast via Zoom Webinars. To facilitate live participation from a broad international audience, seminars are typically held from 15:00 to 16:00 CEST/CET. Recordings of the webinars are archived on the ACO YouTube channel.

Coming webinar

On 24 February 2026,  Brian McNamara (University of Waterloo) will present “XRISM’s New Perspective on the X-ray Atmospheres of Galaxy Clusters.”

Abstract: The XRISM X-ray Observatory has observed nearly two dozen cluster and group atmospheres since its launch in 2023.  XRISM’s prime camera, Resolve, is delivering ~5eV spectral resolution from about 1 keV to beyond 6 keV.  Atmospheric radial velocities and velocity dispersions are measured to precisions of tens of km/s.  Bulk motions with speeds upward of 300 km/s are revealing complex atmospheric gas flows associated with mergers in bright clusters.  However, ratios of kinetic to thermal energy of only a few percent or less are in tension with some cosmological models.  The level of atmospheric turbulence in cooling flow clusters with powerful radio sources is surprisingly low.  No trend between jet power and atmospheric velocity dispersion has emerged.   In most systems, heating by turbulent dissipation driven by jets and bubbles would have great difficulty offsetting atmospheric cooling.  Abundance measurements of the iron-peak elements Fe, Ni, Cr and lighter elements including, Ca, Ar, S, Si are beginning to provide new insights into the cosmic history of chemical enrichment.  Finally, relatively cool (<2 keV), high velocity dispersion (~300 km/s) gas discovered in four clusters hints at an exciting new atmospheric gas component of unknown origin.   I will briefly review these and other exciting results from XRISM, and I will give my views of where this research is headed in the future.

The webinar connection details are as follows:

https://rediris.zoom.us/j/99783070475?pwd=NbKWzgrq7oOYcY6xIOHpvWp9IEJpOt.1

Passcode: 083854

Recorded webinars

They are publicly distributed in this dedicated playlist on the ACO YouTube channel.

Presentations

The PDF versions of the presentations can be downloaded individually at the links given below:

 

Code of conduct

All participants in the seminar series are expected to behave professionally and respectfully with other colleagues, some basic guidelines are:

  • Behave professionally. Refrain from harassment in any form, avoiding offensive comments about individual characteristics, for example, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, nationality or religion.
  • Ensure all communications are appropriate for a professional audience, taking into account the many different backgrounds of the participants. For example, sexual or sexist language and imagery are not appropriate.
  • Be respectful and do neither insult the participants or the facilitators of the webinars.
  • Critique ideas, not people.

Based on the code of conduct of XMM-Newton workshops.

Scientific Organizing Committee

Laura Brenneman (CfA), Nanda Rea (ICE-CSIC), Aurora Simionescu (SRON), and the Athena Community Office (ACO).