Introduction

The High-Energy Astrophysics (HEA) divison represents SRON's efforts in astrophysical research in the X-ray/gamma-ray regime. This regime covers about 8 decades of the electro-magnetic spectrum -- from about 0.1 keV to 10 GeV -- that can only be studied with instruments in space. Only at higher gamma-ray energies studies from the Earth are possible.

SRON/HEA has been active over this entire spectral range with contributions to various space missions and many scientific studies since the 1960's.

The HEA division initiates/studies new ideas in worldwide collaborations, participates in the follow-up developments towards designing/building a new instrument, and subsequently prepares for the scientific data analysis in collaboration with colleagues worldwide.

Current activities

Among the most recent instrumental track records are the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) on ESA's XMM-Newton satellite and the Low Energy Transmission Grating (LETG) on NASA's Chandra. SRON is PI of both these grating instruments. Both satellites are still operational and continue to be signficantly overscribed by observing proposals from all over the world.

Research in the HEA division focuses on observational studies of topics/objects for which the understanding depends critically on the emitted X-ray and gamma-ray radiation. These topics/objects include the hot tenuous gas within/near clusters of galaxies, the nuclei of galaxies containing supermassive black holes, Galactic neutron stars and black holes that accrete matter from a nearby companion star, isolated neutron stars with high magnetic fields, interstellar dust, and protostars. This research draws on data gathered with the instruments built by SRON, supplemented by other instrumentation on e.g. INTEGRAL, RXTE, Swift, and ASCA, as well as [optical] observatories on the ground.

SRON's focus in high-astrophysics for the future is on Astro-H and IXO.

More info:

• IXO @SRON
• Astro-H @SRON
• XMM-Newton/RGS @SRON
• Chandra/LETG @SRON

History

XMM-Newton and Chandra (both launched in 1999) were preceded within SRON/HEA by COMPTEL (the Compton gamma-ray telescope on NASA's Gamma-Ray Observatory, GRO) and the Wide Field Camera's (WFCs) on Beppo-SAX in an Italian-Dutch collaboration. Also these satellites were launched in the 1990's (in 1991 and 1996 respectively), which clearly was a period with  many milestones.

Before that, in the 1970's/80's, COMIS/TTM (1987), EXOSAT (1983), COS-B (1975), and ANS (the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite, 1974) were the Dutch activities in high-energy astrophysics in space. COS-B was ESA's first scientific satellite.

But there was more, in the 1960's already. Predecessors of SRON/HEA, namely the "Space Research Laboratory" of the Astronomical Institute at Utrecht and the "Cosmic-Ray Working Group" in Leiden, particpated e.g. with proportional counters for soft X-rays in various rocket flights and the ESRO II satellite and with an cosmic-ray electron experiment on OGO-5. Together with the "Space Research Department" of the Kapteyn Astonomical Instititute in Groningen (e.g. responsible for the UV experiment on ANS), these research groups were combined into SRON.

More info:

• CGRO/COMPTEL @SRON
• BeppoSAX/WFC @SRON
• EXOSAT @SRON
• COMIS/TTM @SRON
• COS-B @SRON
• Earlier projects @SRON

The HEA-division employs 36 persons, headed by prof. dr. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .