This week, researchers from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) will participate at the European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2022 in Valencia, Spain. The EAS Meeting has more than 25 years of tradition and it has imposed itself as the largest conference for European astronomy.

The eXTP mission

ICE-CSIC and IEEC researchers Margarita Hernanz and Nanda Rea are part of the scientific organisation committee of a session on the eXTP mission. ICE-CSIC researchers Alessandro Patruno and Diego F. Torres are invited speakers of the session.

The enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission (eXTP) is a China-led science mission designed to study the state of matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism, as for instance what is happening on the vicinity of black holes or what is the state of matter inside neutron stars. Its predicted launch is in 2027.

The Magnet alliance

The largest outreach initiative at the institute is the Magnet alliance. The program, led by the private foundation Fundació Bofill, is inspired by the Magnet schools in the United States and aims at fighting school segregation in Catalonia. The ICE-CSIC collaborates with the Gabriel Castellà i Raich public school, a school with integration difficulties in the town of Igualada, in the province of Barcelona.

ICE-CSIC researcher Daniele Viganò will talk about the institute’s experience within this program with a conference within the Diversity and Inclusion in European Astronomy session.