Ciro is a senior researcher at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Palermo. He started his career as an X-ray astronomer at SRON, NL. He then
moved to Cambridge, UK, and to ESTEC, ESA, NL.
Ciro’s research primarily focuses on the connection between the growth of black holes, their outflows and the
local star formation. In 2016, he discovered the first tracks of ultrafast winds in ultra-luminous X-ray sources showing their super-Eddington nature making them ideal targets for NewAthena.
Ciro is a member of the NewAthena Science Study team. Since 2010 has been involved at various levels within Athena and then the X-IFU consortium with the goal to maximise Athena’s capabilities to study powerful outflows from black holes, the structure of the interstellar medium and its cooling flow problem.
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Image: Artist’s impression of a black hole feeding on gas at a high rate from a companion star in a ULX binary system. The conversion of matter into energy produces X-ray radiation whose enormous pressure launches a wind at 20% of the speed of light