Mar 20, 2019
Two chimneys of hot gas found around the central back hole
Thanks to the X-ray satellites Chandra and XMM-Newton, an international team including the Department of Astrophysics of CEA-Irfu has just discovered the existence of two bubbles of hot gas escaping to distances of about 500 light-years, on both sides of the massive black hole environment, in the center of our galaxy.
Dec 15, 2015
3D-maps of galaxy clusters
A new 3D map of galaxy clusters has just been published by a research team led by Maguerite Pierre from the Astrophysics Department-AIM Laboratory of CEA-IRFU through a survey of two regions of the sky, each covering about 25 square degrees (about 100 times the area of the full moon). The survey, called XXL, was conducted from 2011 to 2013 resulting from 543 observations of the X-ray satellite XMM-Newton and requiring over 6 million seconds exposure.
Aug 15, 2013
Detection by XMM-Newton of a periodic absorption line close to the surface of a Magnetar
The intense and sporadic activity of Magnetars, rotating neutron stars, has its origin in the current model from their extreme magnetic field. At odds to the large majority of the sources of this kind, an exceptionally low value for the magnetic field of SGR 0418+5729 had been recently reported.
Nov 05, 2012
Computation of the X-ray emission of a supernova remnant
An international team of astrophysicists, including Samar Safi-Harb and Gilles Ferrand at the University of Manitoba (Canada) and Anne Decourchelle from the Astrophysical Department-AIM Laboratory (CEA Saclay - France), has produced the first 3D simulations of supernova remnants (SNRs) showing the effect of particle acceleration at the wave fronts generated by these powerful X-ray sources in our galaxy. The research is published in the last issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
Oct 09, 2012
New type of cosmic ray discovered after 100 years
Using the European X-ray astronomy satellite XMM-Newton [1], researchers from CNRS [2] and CEA [3] have discovered a new source of cosmic rays. In the vicinity of the remarkable Arches cluster, near the center of the Milky Way, these particles are accelerated in the shock wave generated by tens of thousands of young stars moving at a speed of around 700,000
km/h. These cosmic rays produce a characteristic X-ray emission by interacting with the atoms in the surrounding gas.
Jan 29, 2011
Clusters and superclusters billions of light-years away
An international team, including scientists from the Astrophysics Department-AIM and the Particle Physics Department of CEA-Irfu, has just used the Planck satellite to discover galaxy clusters with characteristics that were previously unknown. These clusters, which contain up to a thousand galaxies, are the largest structures in the Universe. Many of them are located very far away from us, and we still know relatively little about them.
May 27, 2010
Molecular clouds reveal a giant outburst of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Galaxy
The central black hole of the Galaxy, today surprisingly quiet, has undergone, several hundred years ago, a violent phase of activity. This is the conclusion reached by an international team led by astrophysicists of the APC laboratory and including scientists of the Service d'Astrophysique of CEA-Irfu, by studying the high energy emission of molecular clouds located in the central regions of the Galaxy.
