SPRING 2017 The High Energy Astrophysics Division Newsletter In this Issue: View from the Chair — special advertising section — hidden black holes revealed, and others — second running — finding a path through spacetime — announcing mysteries under the ice — performance enhancements for Chandra — milestones for XMM — the hunt continues for Swift — ULXNS — on the trail of the wild neutrino with INTEGRAL — searching at home with Fermi — energetic electrons seen at the ISS — news from the cosmos — of scientific interest — a Universe of learning — NICER launch prep — SRG progress — the wisdom of Athena — the slant on IXPE — the XARM — building CTA — all-seeing Lynx — in memoriam From the Chair for the discovery of merging black hole binaries, and for beginning the new era of gravitational-wave astronomy. CHRIS REYNOLDS (U. MD) Prof. González will give the Rossi Prize Lecture at the All systems are go for our 16th Divisional meeting to 231st AAS meeting to be held at National Harbor, MD be held in Sun Valley, Idaho, 20-24 August 2017! Regis- in January 2018. Please join me in congratulating all of tration and abstract submission is now open and we’re this year’s HEAD prize winners. looking forward to an exciting scientific program cover- ing all aspects of high-energy astrophysics, kicked off by The past few months has been eventful in the world a total solar eclipse! of high-energy astrophysics missions. NICER and ISS- CREAM are at the Kennedy Space Center and ready for One of the most important aspects of these meet- launch to the International Space Station. Further in the ings is the chance to honor a new batch of HEAD future, NASA has formally selected the Imaging X-ray Po- prize winners. Dr. Nadia Drake is the winner of the larimetry Explorer (IXPE) for flight in 2020 – congrat- 2017 David N. Schramm Award for high-energy astro- ulations to the PI, Dr. Martin Weisskopf, and the rest physics science journalism for her fabulous piece “Found! of the IXPE team on their success! NASA has also re- Gravitational Waves, or a Wrinkle in Spacetime”, and will cently selected to fund three high-energy Probe mission be honored in a short ceremony at the HEAD meeting concept studies, STROBE-X (PI P. Ray; X-ray timing), banquet. Dr. Jon Miller is the winner of the 2017 HEAD TAP (PI J. Camp; wide field transient survey) and AXIS Mid-Career Prize for his seminal contributions to high (PI R. Mushotzky; high-angular resolution X-ray obser- resolution X-ray observations of accreting black hole sys- vatory). Congratulations to these teams and best of luck tems, and he will give a prize lecture during the 16th with your studies. HEAD meeting. Dr. Eric Coughlin is the winner of the 2017 HEAD Dissertation Prize for his thesis “The Evolu- In the meantime, the Lynx X-ray Surveyor science tionary Pathways of Tidal Disruption Events: From Stars and technology definition team (STDT) continues to de- to Debris Streams, Accretion Disks, and Relativistic Jets”, velop the scientific and technical case for the next large and will also give a prize lecture during the meeting. US X-ray observatory for consideration by the upcoming Finally, Prof. Gabriela González and the LIGO Scientific decadal survey. Finally, we have recently heard that NASA Collaboration have been awarded the 2017 Bruno Rossi and JAXA are proceeding with the X-ray Astronomy Re- Prize for the first direct detections of gravitational waves, covery Mission (XARM) to launch in 2021 to recover high The High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society m head.aas.org B [email protected] Page 1 spectral resolution X-ray science lost due to the failure of on National Geographic’s website on February 11, 2016. Hitomi. Let it never be said that high-energy astrophysics Ms. Drake will be attending this summer’s 16th Divisional isn’t an active field! meeting of the HEAD in Sun Valley, ID, where she’ll be Let me end my column with a remembrance of our presented with the Award. Competition for the Schramm friend and colleague, Dr. Neil Gehrels, who passed away Award was especially fierce this year, as 15 science jour- on February 6, 2017. During his distinguished career at nalists were nominated (and each nominee is allowed the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, he served as to submit two entries, which are considered separately), Project Scientist for the Compton Gamma-Ray Obser- covering the full suite of high-energy astrophysics activi- vatory and WFIRST missions, Principal Investigator of ties over the past year and a half, many in the burgeoning the Swift mission, Mission Scientist for INTEGRAL, and field of gravitational wave detection. as a member of the LIGO Collaboration. He won the A personal selection of recent stories that made news Henry Draper Medal in 2009 for his work on CGRO and from HEAD missions since the beginning of the year: Swift, and he was appointed to the National Academy • Black Holes Hide in Our Cosmic Backyard (January of Sciences in 2010. Along with Shri Kulkarni, Neil was 7, 2017) awarded this year’s prestigious Dan David Prize. In addi- tion to being a scientist of the highest caliber, he was a • NASA’s Fermi Sees Gamma Rays from “Hidden” So- dedicated mentor and guide to many younger scientists lar Flares (January 30, 2017) in our field. And, somehow, Neil found the time to have a full and rich life outside of science – he had a passion • Mind the Gap: Rapid Burster Behavior Explained for music, was an accomplished mountain climber, and (January 31, 2017) was an active volunteer in disadvantaged communities in • Black Hole Meal Sets Record for Length and Size Maryland and DC. We miss you Neil! (February 6, 2017) • NASA’s Fermi Finds Possible Dark Matter Ties in An- A Special Eclipse Advertisement dromeda Galaxy (February 21, 2017) HUGH HUDSON (UC BERKELEY) • NuSTAR Spots Temperature Swings of Black Hole Going to the 16th Divisional meeting? The Meg- Winds (March 1, 2017) amovie project aims at systematically collecting imagery • NASA’s Swift Mission Maps a Star’s “Death Spiral” of the August 21 eclipse into a public-domain archive for into a Black Hole (March 20, 2017) outreach, as well as making nice movies on the basis of some of these data via Google help. We are developing • Mysterious Cosmic Explosion Puzzles Astronomers a free app (Megamovie Mobile, to be released in June) (March 30, 2017) that will automate Android or IOS smartphone usage for this purpose. Do not waste your pixels! We are most in- terested, of course, in contributions made with serious photographic equipment, such as a DSLR camera, long lens, and tracker. Please see Megamovie project to join in this unique adventure, and read the Eclipse Megamovie forum important information. HEAD in the News MEGAN WATZKE (CXC) It’s of course been a good year for gravitational wave science. As noted above, in January, Dr. Gabriela González and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration were awarded the HEAD’s prestigious Bruno Rossi Prize, for the first direct detections of gravitational waves, for the discovery of merging black hole binaries, and for usher- ing in the new era of observational gravitational-wave as- A puzzling flash of X-rays seen in the Chandra Deep Field South, dubbed tronomy. As part of the prize, Dr. González will present an CDF-S XT1. The inset shows the time variability of the variable source. invited talk at the 231st meeting of the American Astro- Credit: NASA/CXC/Pontifical Catholic Univ./F.Bauer et al. nomical Society, in January, 2018. In March, Nadia Drake was named the 2017 winner of Please contact Megan Watzke, the HEAD Press Officer, the David N. Schramm Award for for high-energy astro- if you feel like you have a result that you’ll be presenting physics science journalism, for her story “Found! Gravita- at the 16h Divisional Meeting that you consider news- tional Waves, or a Wrinkle in Spacetime” which appeared worthy. Newsworthiness, like beauty, is in the eye of the The High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society m head.aas.org B [email protected] Page 2 beholder, but in general, the HEAD seeks to publicize re- and offline analysis are in progress; results will be shared sults that are novel, of significance, and which have not when available. been previously discussed in the media. If you believe you The O2 run is expected to continue to the end of Au- have such a newsworthy result, please let Megan know gust 2017. The Advanced Virgo Detector (near Pisa, Italy) as soon as possible. As always, weekly highlights of high- is nearing readiness, and it is likely that Virgo will join the energy astrophysics science are featured at the High En- LIGO detectors toward the end of O2 for joint observa- ergy Astrophysics Picture of the Week. Please e-mail Mike tion. After O2, a commissioning break of 12-18 months Corcoran if you have a result worth highlighting. will be used to address limitations and opportunities, with the objective of significantly increasing the sensitiv- Laser Interferometer Gravitational- ity of the LIGO detectors, while Virgo will continue with commissioning. In parallel, the community is working on Wave Observatory upgrades of the Advanced LIGO detectors, and defining FRED RAAB (CALTECH), DAVID SHOEMAKER (MIT) third-generation detectors for use in new observatories; these could come on line at the time of LISA. Changing of the guard: Gabriela González, after 6 years as the Spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Col- laboration, has stepped down, and David Shoemaker of Laser Interferometer Space Antenna MIT has been elected as the new LSC Spokesperson for IRA THORPE (NASA/GSFC), GUIDO MUELLER (U.