First ATHENA Science Workshop
Start date: 15 Jun 2011
Address: Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße, Garching, Germany
In March of this year ESA announced its plan to reformulate all the L-class mission candidates, including the International X-ray Observatory (IXO). Since that time, a team has been set up to for a new large X-ray mission concept called ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics). In late April, the ATHENA Study Team (AST) finalised a baseline concept for the mission with ESA. This comprises two large-area telescopes, with fixed focal plane instruments, one a calorimeter spectrometer and the other a wide-field imager. This workshop is designed to introduce Athena to the astronomical community, and explore the science capabilities and objectives for the mission, in preparation for its submission for review by ESA in late 2011.