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The research activity at INAF-OAB spans a broad range of topics in astronomy, from planets to stars and galaxies, from clusters of galaxies and cosmology to instrumental and technological developments.
Most programs are carried out in collaboration with other Italian and International Institutes

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The main objectives studied are neutron stars and black holes in our galaxy, massive black holes at the centres of galaxies (AGN), hot plasmas in stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
Our research is carried out with observations from High Energy Astrophysics satellites (X and Gamma) such as XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift, INTEGRAL, NuSTAR, AstroSat, together with large archival databases from past X-ray missions (BeppoSAX, RossiXTE, ROSAT).
OAB is directly involved in the Swift mission and has a small participation to the Indian mission AstroSat.
Theoretical work includes the study of relativistic plasmas around black holes and neutron stars, in particular of relativistic jets, and in the Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) phenomenon, possibly related to the gravitational collapse of massive stars into black holes.


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Mirror technology for earth and space astronomy.
On the technological side, INAF-OAB, togther with ASI, Media Lario company and the INAF/IASF Institute in Milan, developed grazing incidence X-ray optics based on nickel, used first for Beppo-SAX, then for the ESA XMM-Newton satellite.
Under OAB responsibility, this technology was also used for the optics of the NASA Swift satellite, dedicated the study of Gamma ray Bursts.
OAB is also involved in the Silicon Pore Optics implementation for ATHENA, a large X-ray mission for the ESA science program, due for launch in 2028.
OAB supporting activities for ATHENA are: design, simulations and calibrations.
Thanks to support from ESA, ASI and INAF, OAB is studying new techniques for realization of optics based on hot and cold slumping of millimeter-fraction thickness mirror sheets and direct optics processing on monolithic and segmented under-layers in view of future missions such as LYNX (NASA) and NGHXT (JAXA).
As for for gamma-ray astronomy with Cherenkov ground telescopes (very large mirror area, although with modest angular resolution) OAB, together with the Media Lario company, developed composite mirrors (mirror sheets with an aluminum bee nest) technology by means of cold slumping.
This technology was used for the MAGIC Cherenkov telescopes I and II, and will be used for most mirrors of Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) and ASTRI SST.
Finally, in view of the EELT, OAB is involved in innovative optics for wide-dimension mirror and lens by means of bonnet polishing and ion beam figuring using advanced facilities supported by ad hoc MIUR funding.
More information: "Advanced Technologies for space and ground-based telescopes"


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Extragalactic astronomy and cosmology.
Galaxy evolution: the main topics studied in this field are formation and evolution mechanisms, mass accretion history (in situ or merging) with morphological characteristics and stellar formation linked to the environment.
These studies are carried out with different, but complementary, data and methods: from very large photometric (VIDEO, VEILS) and spectroscopic (VIPERS, zCOSMOS) surveys to high-resolution spectra of objects at different redshift; from space imaging (HST) used for studies of size and colour gradients of high redshift galaxies, to the analysis of different redshift-scale relations, up to X-ray ultra-luminous sources (ULX) connected with high stellar-formation events.
Galaxy clusters:
1) galaxy evolution in relation to environment and density;
2) intra-cluster medium properties of different redshift selected samples, independently from the medium itself;
2) search and spectroscopic confirmation of clusters with z>2;
3) infall studies of galaxy groups connected with properties of the intergalactic medium and with clusters formation and evolution mechanisms.
These studies are carried on in the contest of future ground- (LSST, E-ELT, WEAVE) and space- (JWST, Euclid, Athena) facilities too, in which OAB researchers are involved.


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Optical astronomy.
OAB is involved in the Global Architecture of Planetary Systems (GAPS) project for extrasolar systems search with the HARPS-N spectrograph, located at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG).
Our researchers take advantage of the accumulated knowledge in asteroseismology for time series analysis on data obtained with the CoRoT, Kepler and K2 space missions.
Studies of the internal structure of stars are carried out thanks to the very large SISMA archive, realized and managed by OAB.


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Optical technology.
With regard to optical technology, we study new materials for optical applications, with specific attention to astronomical instrumentation.
In particular, OAB researchers study holographic materials used for dispersing systems mounted on various small and medium-dimension spectrographs.
These researches are supported by the European OPTICON (Eu FP-7 e H2020) project and by the Lombardia Region with several industrial projects.
The optical technological team is also involved into optomechanical design and realization studies for the adaptive optics of MAORY and the very high resolution spectrometer HIRES (ELT strumentations).
Finally, the team is involved in the realization of the ESO SOX NTT spectrograph located in La Silla (Chile).