0000000000874561
AUTHOR
A. Heger
XIPE: the x-ray imaging polarimetry explorer
XIPE, the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer, is a mission dedicated to X-ray Astronomy. At the time of writing XIPE is in a competitive phase A as fourth medium size mission of ESA (M4). It promises to reopen the polarimetry window in high energy Astrophysics after more than 4 decades thanks to a detector that efficiently exploits the photoelectric effect and to X-ray optics with large effective area. XIPE uniqueness is time-spectrally-spatially- resolved X-ray polarimetry as a breakthrough in high energy astrophysics and fundamental physics. Indeed the payload consists of three Gas Pixel Detectors at the focus of three X-ray optics with a total effective area larger than one XMM mirror bu…
Fatal attack on a pedestrian by an escaped circus elephant
Abstract We report the case of a 65-year-old man who was attacked and killed by a female elephant that had previously escaped from a nearby circus. According to a witness the man was lifted up by the tusks, flung into the air and stomped upon. At autopsy the body showed signs of severe blunt force trauma and impalement, including multiple lacerations of the skin, a crushed thorax, a spinal fracture and a fractured humerus. The spinal cord and the major abdominal vessels were severed. There have been very few elephant attacks in Europe; this is the first reported case in Germany.
Horizons: Nuclear Astrophysics in the 2020s and Beyond
Nuclear astrophysics is a field at the intersection of nuclear physics and astrophysics, which seeks to understand the nuclear engines of astronomical objects and the origin of the chemical elements. This white paper summarizes progress and status of the field, the new open questions that have emerged, and the tremendous scientific opportunities that have opened up with major advances in capabilities across an ever growing number of disciplines and subfields that need to be integrated.We take a holistic view of the field discussing the unique challenges and opportunities in nuclear astrophysics in regards to science, diversity, education, and the interdisciplinarity and breadth of the field…