VERT-X

VERT-X

A new calibration facility for the ATHENA mirror assembly

SHORT DESCRIPTION

VERT-X is the largest-scale development of our BEaTriX laboratory – located at the observatory’s Merate site – and will be the laboratory where the performance of the entire mirror of the ATHENA X-ray space telescope will be verified (or as we say “calibrated”). This will have to be done before the huge mirror is mounted on the satellite and launched into orbit to perform observations.

In the VERT-X laboratory – a twenty-meter-high steel silo – we will first create the vacuum of space. In this environment, then, through high-precision optical and mechanical systems, we will be able to reproduce the emission of high-energy photons (X-rays) produced by astronomical sources. The greater the precision with which we make measurements here on Earth in our artificial laboratory, the greater the precision of the observations of black holes, neutron stars and galaxy clusters made by the ATHENA telescope when it is in space.

The project is funded by the European Space Agency ESA under the ATHENA project

The project started in 2018. After a long planning phase, it entered the implementation phase in 2021. In the first phase, we are building the most important and critical measurement systems of the laboratory that will be tested in 2025. We expect that, after this phase, the laboratory can become operational in about 2 years.

ROLE OF THE OBSERVATORY

The Brera Observatory, after having created the concept of the VERT-X laboratory, leads and coordinates the consortium of companies that designed it in detail and are building it.

OBSERVATORY STAFF INVOLVED

• Alberto Moretti – alberto.moretti AT inaf.it
• Daniele Spiga – daniele.spiga AT inaf.it
• Stefano Basso  – stefano.basso AT inaf .it
• Giovanni Pareschi – giovanni.pareschi AT inaf.it
• Giorgia Sironi  – giorgia.sironi AT inaf.it
• Mauro Ghigo – mauro.ghigo AT inaf.it

TIMELINE

2018 –

CONTACT

CREDITS

Web page content: A. Moretti.