Sassari
Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...
,
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
) is an Italian astrophysicist, known for studies of
gamma ray burst
In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten milli ...
s (GRBs).
Costa's family moved in 1954 to Rome, where he spent the remainder of his childhood and adolescence and studied physics. For his PhD with Giulio Auriemma, he participated in rocket experiments with X-ray detectors at the IAS (Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale) in Rome. In 1976, he joined the IAS and worked on balloon experiments. Later he was involved in
BeppoSAX
BeppoSAX was an Italian–Dutch satellite for X-ray astronomy which played a crucial role in resolving the origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most energetic events known in the universe. It was the first X-ray mission capable of simultaneous ...
, the Italian X-ray astronomy satellite (with Dutch participation, and
ESA
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
support), which operated from 1996 to 2003. Costa was in 1981 part of the team of Livio Scarsi, which proposed the construction of the satellite for X-ray detection. On the satellite was a
Phoswich Detector
Phoswich detectors were developed to detect low-intensity, low-energy gamma rays, X-rays, as well as alpha and beta particles efficiently in a higher-energy ambient background. Some detector designs can measure and separately identify all energies ...
System (PDS) used by Filippo Frontera for the discovery of gamma ray bursts (i.e., the PDS was a Gamma Ray Burst Monitor, GRBM). February 28, 1997 was the first time an X-ray afterglow associated with a GRB was observed after localization by SAX, followed shortly thereafter by the optical afterglow (observed by Herschel and Isaac Newton telescopes,
La Palma
La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and officially San Miguel de La Palma, is the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. La Palma has an area of making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The ...
). Two months later, another GRB was detected with subsequent observation in the radio range, thus directly demonstrating by the redshift that GRBs are of extragalactic origin. In 1999, he developed the X-ray detector for the Italian X-ray/gamma-ray satellites AGILE, which started in 2007. He also developed X-ray
polarimeter
A polarimeter is a scientific instrument used to measure the angle of rotation caused by passing polarized light through an optically active substance.Gerald J. Fishman the
Shaw Prize
The Shaw Prize is an annual award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours "individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and signifi ...
.
References
Sources
*Govert Schilling ''Flash! The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe'', Cambridge University Press 2002