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IT’S OUR MISSION TO BRING ABOUT BREAKTHROUGHS IN INTERNATIONAL SPACE RESEARCH




NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SPACE RESEARCH




IT’S OUR MISSION TO BRING ABOUT BREAKTHROUGHS IN INTERNATIONAL SPACE RESEARCH




NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SPACE RESEARCH




NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SPACE RESEARCH


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Home » ASTROPHYSICS » SRON’s Astrophysics programme


SRON’S ASTROPHYSICS PROGRAMME


THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE

The Astrophysics programme is dedicated to unraveling the history of the
universe. For this we study cool as well as hot and turbulent areas in deep
space.

Cosmic objects and phenomena in the hot universe release enormous amounts of
energy and therefore radiate X-rays and gamma rays. The radiation from these
objects and phenomena – such as black holes and the hot tenuous gas within
clusters of galaxies and in the filaments between them – contains
information about their origin and evolution and the universe itself. With the
next generation of X-ray telescopes we will be able to shed light on some of the
most pressing questions in astrophysics such as how did ordinary matter assemble
into the large-scale structures we see today and how do black holes grow and
shape the universe?

But there are more questions that await answers. How are stars and planets born?
Which molecules play a key role in the birth process? To discover this we must
study the star cradles in the cool universe, the cool clouds of gas and dust in
space. No optical or X-ray telescope can pierce through these clouds. But with
special, deeply cooled instruments on space telescopes we can pick up the
infrared and submillimeter radiation from behind these veils. For example, with
this approach we have found water in the gas torus released from Saturn’s moon
Enceladus, in gas streaming off comets, in planetary atmospheres, external
galaxies, and around evolving stars. We now have a far better understanding of
the cosmic cycle of gas that leads to the birth of stars and planets, and the
role played by water and other molecules. The next generation of infrared
telescopes will peer even deeper into the cool universe, back in time, when the
first stars were born.

XMM-Newton at ESTEC, being prepared for an Ariane 5 launch at Kourou
The X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton, in orbit since 1999

The Astrophysics programme at SRON is headed by dr. Jan-Willem den Herder. The
Astrophysics science group attached to this programme consists currently of
{divinfo div=’11’,opt=’number’} persons, largely filled in by externally funded
positions and guest scientists.

The history of the universe, from the first stars to large-scale structure and
the evolution and physics of black holes drive the Astrophysics programme.
Cameras and spectroscopic instruments are the main tools. Aim of the
Astrophysics programme is to encompass the science as well as the development of
instruments (or subsystems) for space, with strong involvement of the Instrument
science group and the Engineering group. Pioneering technology for strategic
long-term plans of the Astrophysics programme, starting at low
technology-readiness levels (TRLs), is developed in the Technology programme.

SRON’s focus is on instruments for far-infrared and X-ray astronomy. Although
chosen in accordance with SRON’s expertise and science interest, the impact of
these instruments goes far beyond SRON itself.


X-RAY ASTRONOMY

Among the most recent instrumental track records are the Reflection Grating
Spectrometer (RGS) on ESA’s XMM-Newton observatory, the Low Energy Transmission
Grating (LETG) on NASA’s Chandra observatory, and our contributions to the
ASTRO-H (Hitomi) observatory (filter wheel for the Soft X-ray Spectrometer, SXS,
and the calibration source onboard) . SRON is PI of the grating instruments on
XMM-Newton and Chandra. Both are still operational and continue to be
signficantly overscribed by observing proposals from all over the world. The
Hitomi satellite is unfortunately lost, after a perfect launch in February 2016
and a few weeks of excellent operations.

Our top priority now is to prepare scientifically and technically for Athena,
the L2 mission of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme, scheduled for launch in 2028.
SRON is the co-PI of the X-IFU instrument. This will provide spatially resolved
spectra of unprecedented quality and energy resolution of the early universe,
thus charting its chemical evolution. It will also map the formation and
evolution of supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies. SRON is
co-Principal Investigator for X-IFU. Our hardware contribution to X-IFU is the
focal plane assembly including its cold electronics. SRON also carries out the
parallel development of back-up ultra-sensitive detector arrays for X-IFU. As a
precursor mission to Athena, SRON will also contribute to the X-ray
spectroscopic instrument on board of the Japanese XARM mission, scheduled for
launch in 2021. XARM is a re-fly of the Hitomi satellite, for which SRON
provided similarly.

History

The Astrophysics programme in the high-energy domain covers historically the
X-ray and gamma-ray regimes. This  involves 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. SRON has been active over this entire
spectral range with contributions to various space missions and many scientific
studies since the 1960s. 

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

Before that, in the 1970s/80s, 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 dedicated scientific
satellite.

But there was more, in the 1960s already. Predecessors of SRON, 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 a 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.

Herschel ready for launch


FAR-INFRARED ASTRONOMY

For many years, focus of the Astrophysics programme in the low-energy domain has
been on the HIFI instrument (high-resolution sub-mm spectrometer) aboard ESA’s
Herschel satellite. HIFI has completed the post-operations phase in the
meantime. SRON was PI of this instrument. After many years of development,
building, and testing (with about 25 institutes and university
departments involved in a dozen countries), HIFI has been observing the universe
with unprecedented spectral accuracy at sub-mm wavelengths.

Integration of the HIFI instrument on the Herschel satellite

The focus is currently on SPICA/SAFARI. SRON leads the large international
consortium that submitted a proposal for SPICA, the next large cryogenic far-IR
observatory, for the M5 competition of the ESA Cosmic Vision programme. If
selected, the Japanese space agency JAXA will provide major elements to the
mission. Launch is foreseen in 2030. SPICA will study the obscured star
formation and black-hole activity of thousands of individual galaxies. It will
also study cradles of planetary systems, providing a full inventory of their
water content. Besides leading the proposal consortium, SRON is the PI institute
for SAFARI, the far-infrared grating spectrograph/ polarimeter.

History

The Astrophysics programme in the low-energy domain covers historically the
infrared/sub-mm regime, which ranges from about 2.5 to 1000 µm and can only
scarcely be explored from Earth. Several types of detection techniques are
necessary to cover this broad spectral interval. SRON has been active in this
field with contributions to various space missions and many scientific studies
since the 1970s.

Infrared
In the years 1967 to 1985, SRON participated in the ultraviolet instrument for
ANS and a number of infrared instruments (Inframap, BIRAP, and in particular
IRAS). Two of the instruments on IRAS (launched in 1983) were built by SRON: the
Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS) and the Chopped Photometric Channel (CPC). In
November 1995 the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was launched. One of the 4
instruments on board the satellite, the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS), was
built by SRON (PI) and the MaxPlanck Institut für extraterrestrische Pysik in
Garching. Many breakthrough observations were obtained with these instruments.

Sub-mm
Very high spectral resolution can be reached with heterodyne techniques, but the
smallest wavelength was a few mm in the early days. Because of the astronomical
importance of measurements with a resolution of a few hundred m/s at sub-mm
wavelengths, a research programme was started at SRON in the 1970s for the
detection of electromagnetic radiation at 300 GHz (1 mm) to 3 THz (100 µm). This
research played an increasingly important role in collaboration with the group
of Prof. Klapwijk on “Physics of Thin Layers” at the University of Groningen.

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