Active Galactic Nuclei XVI: A Sea of Discoveries

The sharp high energy sky seen by XRISM

19 Jun 2026, 14:20

20m

Sala Conferenze presso Autorità di Sistema Portuale (Brindisi)

Talk S9 - Current and Future Facilities for AGN Science: Discussing the implementation and scientific exploitation of major current and future space-based and ground-based facilities with Italian involvement, focusing on maximizing their impact on AGN studies

Speaker

Valentina Braito (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

Description

XRISM was successfully launched in September 2023 and in just its first two years of observations the Resolve data are providing a unique high-resolution view of the innermost regions of AGN and are poised to revolutionize our knowledge of them. XRISM-Resolve’s piercing energy resolution of 5 eV now enables precise line width and velocity measurements, with no degeneracies between column density and ionization, thus allowing for a detailed mapping of the velocity field of the emitting and absorbing regions in AGN. Early XRISM results already reveal unexpectedly rich spectra; structures that were previously blurred into just a few spectral bins in the CCD era are now fully revealed in exquisite detail. Here, I will highlight the main results obtained on early observations of nearby bright AGNs, from the best examples of unobscured AGN to Compton thick cases and the prototypes of the ultra-fast disk winds.