Physics Colloquium with Pepi Fabbiano on 25 years of Chandra

The Chandra X-ray observatory, NASA great observatory for the X-ray band, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. This talk will introduce X-ray Astronomy and summarize the capabilities of Chandra. It will then present recent work on high resolution X-ray observations of nearby Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), aimed at characterizing in detail the effect of the nuclear supermassive active black hole on the host galaxy. Together with comparable quality  multi-wavelength observations,  Chandra is  providing a new and detailed observational understanding of 'AGN feedback' and suggesting a revision of the AGN model, in which the host galaxy becomes a key component. The talk will also briefly introduce the Chandra Source Catalog, which includes tabular information and science-ready data for all the imaging Chandra observations obtained up to the end of 2021, and conclude with some reflection on the future of X-ray astronomy.

This lecture was made possible by the William C. Ferguson Fund.