News 2008
The realization of MIRIM-OB, the optical bench of MIRI (Mid Infra Red Imager), one of the four instruments which will equip the forthcoming space telescope JWST has just completed an essential step with the demonstration that it fulfills the various and rigorous constraints imposed by its use in space. The exam, called the "Qualification Review", which included vibration-proof, temperature holding and survival against the various radiation hazards appropriate to the environment in space, was carried out in conjunction with specialists from the contract management agencies. This process being successfully completed it now allows the construction of the instrument which will be attached to the focal plane of JWST, whose launch date is expected for 2013.
Neutron stars are the most magnetized objects in our Universe. Some of them, dubbed "Magnetars" have a record magnetic field of 1011 Tesla (T), which corresponds to one million of billions times that of the Sun during a quiescent phase. It's around this class of objects that an over-density of electrons has been discovered. These results, delivered by an international team of researchers that includes Diego Götz from the Service d'Astrophysique of CEA-Irfu, is the result of a careful analysis of the X-ray emission observed with the satellites of the European Space Agency (ESA) XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL. The enormous battery represented by the highly magnetized neutron stars provides its magnetosphere with electrons in a much efficient way, with respect to other neutron stars. These physical phenomena, completely inaccessible in laboratory experiments due to the enormous magnetic fields required, allow to better understand the behavior of matter in extreme conditions. This work has been published by The Astrophysical Journal, and has been the object of a press release by ESA.
