Dr. Samar Safi-Harb, professor, Canada Research Chair in extreme astrophysics, Tier 1, department of physics and astronomy
UM researchers excited about AXIS, the premiere next-generation NASA X-ray mission probe
NASA recently announced their selection of the “Probe” (1 billion USD) mission concept to be adopted in the next decade. Two missions (one for infrared light and another for X-ray light) were selected to compete next. The winning concept for probing the X-ray Universe is the “Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite” or AXIS, whose Principal Investigator (PI) is Dr. Chris Reynolds from the University of Maryland. Through rigorous competition for the next mission of the 2030’s, these proposals have the potential to answer burning questions in high-energy astrophysics, including understanding the mechanism and progenitors of supernova explosions that impact the chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies and understanding our cosmic origins.
AXIS involves leadership by Dr. Samar Safi-Harb, professor, Canada Research Chair in extreme astrophysics, Tier 1 in the Faculty of Science at the University of Manitoba’s department of physics and astronomy. She leads the Compact Objects-Supernova Remnants working group and is a co-investigator on the successful NASA proposal for the AXIS mission. The UM AXIS science team includes Dr. Tyrone Woods who explores black holes and exploding stars, Dr. Gilles Ferrand who performs numerical simulations on supercomputers and data visualization, and several students and postdocs in the eXtreme astrophysics group at the University of Manitoba.
AXIS will provide an unprecedented, sharp view of the X-ray Universe in the upcoming decade. AXIS will build on the legacy of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory by providing excellent spatial resolution and ten times improvement in sensitivity. AXIS will also be a powerful facility for studying the time-varying (transient) X-ray universe, following on from the legacy of the Neil Gehrels (Swift) X-ray observatory. AXIS will revolutionize our understanding of supermassive black holes, flows of gas and dust in galaxies, transient extreme phenomena and the aftermath of supernova explosions of stars. It will zoom in and discover new populations of compact objects and their mergers, pulsar wind nebulae, supernova- and kilonova-remnants—the high-energy astrophysical objects that the eXtreme astrophysics group members at the University of Manitoba, led by Safi-Harb, explores.
AXIS will be uniquely well-matched to the Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and ultraviolet Research (CASTOR), a proposed space telescope that is a Flagship Space Astronomy mission for Canada and will be synergistic with several other multi-wavelength, multi-messenger missions planned for the next decade and beyond. As such AXIS will serve a broad and diverse community. AXIS will utilize breakthroughs in technology through the construction of lightweight segmented X-ray optics and developments in the fabrication of efficient CCD detectors, allowing a robust, innovative and cost-effective design.
Dr. Samar Safi-Harb.
“We are very thrilled that AXIS was selected by NASA for the next phase and that we are heavily involved”—Safi-Harb says. “AXIS will be the premier future high-angular resolution X-ray mission that will transform our understanding of a wide range of astrophysical systems and extreme phenomena unattainable on Earth, including gravitational wave sources of relevance to the future space mission LISA. AXIS will train the next generation of astrophysicists, enabling breakthrough discoveries through targeted observations and wide surveys that will reveal millions of new sources and generate large datasets requiring innovative analysis methods including machine learning. As such, AXIS will also help train the next generation of data scientists and attract students to Astronomy, Physics and Science.”
To learn more view the full release on NASA’s website. For the AXIS mission overview, visit Overview of the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) and Advanced X-Ray Imaging Satellite AXIS blog. You can also read the Compact Objects-Supernova Remnants AXIS White Paper.