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An editorial is presented which discusses the highlights of the Second Joint Italian-Pakistani Workshop on Relativistic Astrophysics held at ICRANet in Pescara, Italy in July 2009. The workshop was dedicated to astrophysicist John Archibald Wheeler, who died on April 13, 2008. The authors provided information on the life of Wheeler and his contributions in the study of general relativity.

The Italian Space Agency plays a key role in the fulfillment of space missions, contributing to the scientific, technological and economic progress in Italy. The agency accomplishes space experiments by collaborating with scientific and industrial entities, supporting them in the realization of new projects able to achieve, over the last two decades, unprecedented results and obtention of fundamental information on the birth and evolution of the universe. The paper describes a selection of X-ray technologies developed by the synergy between the Italian Space Agency and its principal collaborators which contributed to the main scientific results achieved over the years, together with the latest advances addressed to the next astrophysics missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a new computing system array, designed, built and now used at the Space Astrophysics and Planetary Institute (IAPS) in Rome, Italy, for the INTEGRAL Space Observatory scientific data analysis. This new system has become necessary in order to reduce the processing time of the INTEGRAL data accumulated during the more than 9 years of in-orbit operation. In order to fulfill the scientific data analysis requirements with a moderately limited investment the starting approach has been to use a 'cluster' array of commercial quad-CPU computers, featuring the extremely large scientific and calibration data archive on line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: AGILE is an ASI (Italian Space Agency) Small Scientific Mission dedicated to high-energy astrophysics which was successfully launched on April 23, 2007. The AGILE instrument is composed of three main detectors: a Tungsten-Silicon Tracker designed to detect and image photons in the 30MeV–50GeV energy band, an X-ray imager called Super-AGILE operating in the 18–60keV energy band, and a Mini-Calorimeter that detects gamma-rays and charged particles energy deposits between 300keV and 100MeV. The instrument is surrounded by an anti-coincidence (AC) system. In this paper, we present the noise characterization and the front-end configuration of the Silicon Tracker. Two crucial (and unique, among gamma-ray astrophysics missions) characteristic of the AGILE Silicon Tracker are the analog signal acquisition (aimed at obtaining an optimal angular resolution for gamma-ray imaging) and the very small dimension of the instrument (the total height including the active elements is and therefore the Silicon Tracker is the lightest and most compact ray imager sent in orbit). The results presented in this paper were obtained during the AIV (Assembly, Integration and Verification) pre-launch testing phase and during the post-launch commissioning phase. The AGILE Silicon Tracker has been optimally configured with a very good response of the frontend system and of the data acquisition units. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The MIllimetric Sardinia radio Telescope Receiver based on Array of Lumped elements KIDs, MISTRAL, is a cryogenic W-band (77–103 GH) LEKID camera which will be integrated at the Gregorian focus of the 64 m aperture Sardinia Radio Telescope, in Italy, in Autumn 2022. This instrument, thanks to its high angular resolution ( ∼ 13 arcsec ) and the wide instantaneous field of view ( ∼ 4 arcmin ), will allow continuum surveys of the mm-wave sky with a variety of scientific targets, spanning from extragalactic astrophysics to solar system science. In this contribution, we will describe the design of the MISTRAL camera, with a particular focus on the optimisation and test of a prototype of the focal plane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Francesco Melchiorri began his scientific career as a condensed matter physicist. In the early 1970s he developed an interest in far infrared astrophysics and especially in measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. First at Florence and later at Rome, his group made measurements of the spectrum of the CMB, the dipole and smaller scale anisotropies, and of the Sunyaev Zeldovich effect. At every stage of this process there were remarkable parallels between Francesco’s career at Florence and Rome and the Author’s career at Berkeley. This paper in honor of Francesco Melchiorri will describe some of these parallels, focusing on measurements of the CMB. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A key nuclear reaction inside stars takes significantly longer than standard models assume, European researchers have discovered. The result, which nuclear physicists at the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA) in Gran Sasso, Italy, report in a pair of online papers, implies that the most ancient star clusters are at least 700 million years older than previously believed. The LUNA team used an underground particle accelerator at Gran Sasso to measure the speed of the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle, one of the pathways by which stars fuse hydrogen into helium, releasing energy.

A tribute to Bruno Rossi. A sketch is given of the sparkling period of the research on Cosmic Rays in Florence by Rossi and his Team. The Group of Arcetri flared up as a meteor on the "Tuscan Hill" which has seen Galileo as a solitary giant opening a new era in Physics some centuries before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outreach activities can be considered a new frontier of all the main astronomical research institutions worldwide and are a part of their mission that earns great appreciation from the general public. Here the situation at INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, is examined and a more active role for librarians is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]