Abstract
Large X-ray observatories such as Chandra and XMM-Newton have been delivering scientific breakthroughs in research fields as diverse as our Solar System, the astrophysics of stars, stellar explosions and compact objects, accreting supermassive black holes, and large-scale structures traced by the hot plasma permeating and surrounding galaxy groups and clusters. The recently launched X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission observatory is opening in earnest the new observational window of non-dispersive high-resolution spectroscopy. However, several questions remain open, such as the effect of the stellar radiation field on the habitability of nearby planets, the equation of state regulating matter in neutron stars, the origin and distribution of metals in the Universe, the processes driving the cosmological evolution of the baryons locked in the gravitational potential of dark matter and the impact of supermassive black hole growth on galaxy evolution, to mention just a few. Furthermore, X-ray astronomy has a key part to play in multimessenger astrophysics. Addressing these questions experimentally requires an order-of-magnitude leap in sensitivity, spectroscopy and survey capabilities with respect to existing X-ray observatories. This article succinctly summarizes the main areas where high-energy astrophysics is expected to contribute to our understanding of the Universe in the next decade and describes a new mission concept under study by the European Space Agency, the scientific community worldwide and two international partners (JAXA and NASA), designed to enable transformational discoveries: NewAthena. This concept inherits its basic payload design from a previous study carried out until 2022, Athena.
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Data availability
The Chandra/HETG spectrum shown in Fig. 2 has been extracted from data available in public archives. All the NewAthena simulations shown in this Perspective were generated using public telescope and instrument responses made available by ESA and by the NewAthena Instrument Consortia. The instrument responses used to produce Figs. 3 and 4 are publicly available on the websites of the corresponding missions.
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Acknowledgements
We explicitly acknowledge the work of countless scientists at ESA, in the WFI and X-IFU Instrument Consortia and in the International Partners of the Athena Study (JAXA and NASA), as well as in the scientific community coordinated by the Athena Community Office, as a source of continuous inspiration for this manuscript and—more fundamentally—for the Science Redefinition Team (SRDT) contribution to the reformulation of the NewAthena science case. We express our appreciation to scientists and engineers in the aforementioned institutions, who enabled the definition of NewAthena as a technical and financially viable project in the framework of the ESA Science Programme. The SIXTE software package55, a generic, mission-independent Monte Carlo simulation toolkit for X-ray astronomical instrumentation, has been extensively used to create the figures in this manuscript. Some of the performance simulations for NewAthena have been provided by SIMPOSIuM, an ESA-financed project aimed at developing an open-source silicon pore optics simulation tool56. The bottom right panel of Fig. 3 was provided by A. Rau (MPE, Garching). Comments by D. Barret and E. Kuulkers on an earlier version of the manuscript are gratefully acknowledged.
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This manuscript was prepared in a collaborative fashion by all authors, as members of the NewAthena SRDT, appointed by ESA in 2023 to evaluate the science case of the mission. Each of the authors contributed to a specific section or subsection and provided inputs for the generation of the figures. Specific details are the following. F.J.C., M.G. and N.R. coordinated the preparation of the manuscript. They defined the structure of the Perspective, and wrote the manuscript introduction. F.J.C. coordinated the elaboration in ‘How do black holes grow and influence galaxy evolution?’. J.A., F.J.C., T.D., D.P. and P.-O.P. contributed to ‘How do black holes grow and influence galaxy evolution?’. M.G. coordinated the elaboration of ‘Mapping the dynamical assembly of intergalactic plasma in the large-scale structure’ and ‘Probing the evolution of metal factories in the Universe’. D.E., F.G., G.W.P., T.H.R. and A.S. contributed to ‘Mapping the dynamical assembly of intergalactic plasma in the large-scale structure’ and ‘Probing the evolution of metal factories in the Universe’. N.R. coordinated the elaboration of ‘Probing star–planet interaction with accurate X-ray spectroscopy’ and ‘X-ray emission from neutron stars as a probe of dense-matter physics and multimessenger astrophysics’. N.R., L.C., E.C., H.M., R.O. and E.T. contributed to ‘Probing star–planet interaction with accurate X-ray spectroscopy’ and ‘X-ray emission from neutron stars as a probe of dense-matter physics and multimessenger astrophysics’. M.G. and D.S. contributed to the elaboration of ‘NewAthena’. J.A. and F.J.C. prepared Fig. 1. A.S. prepared Fig. 2. M.G. prepared Figs. 3 and 4. M.G. was the main Perspective editor. M.C. was the Chair of the SRDT and coordinated the definition and elaboration of the manuscript. All the authors have revised and provided comments on the manuscript at various stages of its elaboration.
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Cruise, M., Guainazzi, M., Aird, J. et al. The NewAthena mission concept in the context of the next decade of X-ray astronomy. Nat Astron 9, 36–44 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02416-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02416-3
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