Patrizia A. Caraveo
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Patrizia Caraveo (born April 8, 1954,
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
) is an Italian astrophysicist.


Biography

Patrizia Caraveo graduated in Physics at the physics department of the University of Milan in 1977. After a period abroad, in 2002 she began working at the Institute of Cosmic Physics in Milan as Director of Research, and is currently Director of the institute. She has worked on several international space missions dedicated to particle physics, starting with the European mission Cos-B. She is currently involved in the European
INTEGRAL In mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented i ...
mission, the
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
Swift mission, the Italian
AGILE Agile may refer to: * Agile, an entity that possesses agility Project management * Agile software development, a development method * Agile construction, iterative and incremental construction method * Agile learning, the application of incremen ...
mission and the NASA
Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
mission, all of which are now in orbit and fully operational. Her main field of interest is the behavior of
neutron stars A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. white ...
at different wavelengths. She was among the first to understand the fundamental role of neutron stars in particle physics. After years of efforts to explain the first unidentified
pulsar A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Ea ...
radio emission, she identified the neutron star Geminga. She has developed a multi-wavelength strategy for the identification of galactic gamma-ray sources. She is a member of the International Astronomical Union. Since 1997, Caraveo has worked as an adjunct professor at the
University of Pavia The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...
. She is married to the physicist Giovanni Bignami.


Research

Her first ten years' research were devoted almost entirely to the analysis and interpretation of data collected from gamma astronomy satellite Cos-B, and the beginning of the study of X-ray astronomy with the analysis of data collected by the
Einstein Observatory Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2) was the first fully imaging X-ray telescope put into space and the second of NASA's three High Energy Astrophysical Observatories. Named HEAO B before launch, the observatory's name was changed to honor Albert E ...
and EXOSAT. In the following period, her interests widened to include all of multi-wavelength astronomy, especially optical astronomy and interpretation of its results. Since her thesis work, Caraveo has taken part in the development of multi-wavelength observations that led to the discovery and understanding of the neutron star Geminga. This required the use of multiple optical instruments both on the ground and in space. She has used observations from satellites such as
SAS-2 The Small Astronomy Satellite 2, also known also as SAS-2, SAS B or Explorer 48, was a NASA gamma ray telescope. It was launched on 15 November 1972 into the low Earth orbit with a periapsis of 443 km and an apoapsis of 632 km. It compl ...
, HEAO-1, Cos-B, Einstein, EXOSAT,
Ginga Ginga may refer to: Japanese Other * "Ginga" (single), a 2005 single from Japanese rock band Fujifabric * Yokosuka P1Y ''Ginga'', a Japanese bomber aircraft TV * Ginga (middleware), a Japanese-Brazilian digital TV middleware Series * Ginga N ...
, ROSAT,
Egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...
,
EUVE The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE or Explorer 67) was a NASA space telescope for ultraviolet astronomy. EUVE was a part of NASA's Explorer spacecraft series. Launched on 7 June 1992. With instruments for ultraviolet (UV) radiation between ...
,
Hubble The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...
,
Hipparcos ''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions of celestial obj ...
, XMM-Newton, and
Chandra Chandra ( sa, चन्द्र, Candra, shining' or 'moon), also known as Soma ( sa, सोम), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) and ...
, in addition to ground-based telescopes such as the
Very Large Array The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory located in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, ~ west of Socorro. The VLA comprises twen ...
. The results of Geminga have opened a new chapter in astrophysics: the study of unidentified gamma-ray sources. This is now one of the main topics of research by several groups around the world. Her identification of Geminga, the first neutron star to show no radio emissions, has opened the way for a more general study of the phenomenology and number of optical pulsars. Caraveo and her team are dedicated to studying the color, motions, and distances of neutron stars, along with the relationship between neutron stars and young supernova remnants. With the use of
parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects ...
with Geminga, Caraveo accomplished the first optical measurement of the distance to an isolated neutron star. The correlation of data from Hipparcos with images from the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the absolute position of the faint optical counterpart of Geminga, was chosen by the
European Space Agency , 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 ...
as one of the 30 success stories presented at the Ministerial Conference in May 1999 (see ESA BR 147). Caraveo's continuous improvement to the techniques of analysis of data from the Hubble Space Telescope allowed the measurement of the proper motion of the Crab pulsar and then proper motion and parallax of the pulsar in the constellation of Sails, yielding a result much closer than she had expected. In both cases there was a significant alignment between the direction of the proper motion vector and the X-ray jets revealed by these two neutron stars. This alignment has profound implications for the physics of the explosion of supernovae. Using the telescope XMM-Newton, Caraveo has contributed to the first direct measurement of the magnetic field of an isolated neutron star, thanks to the discovery of cyclotron absorption lines in the data source 1E1207-59, a neutron star at the center of a
supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
with no radio counterpart. The high sensitivity of XMM-Newton has also resulted in two major findings on Geminga. The star, as it moves with supersonic speed in the interstellar medium, generates a shock wave that produces a train of X-rays. This allows scientists to probe both the density of the interstellar medium and the energy of the accelerated electrons from the source. The result, with Caraveo as first author, was published in Science, on September 5, 2003 (which devoted its cover to XMM-Newton), and has received substantial coverage in the Italian and world press. Observations from Chandra also revealed a tail that follows the pulsar, perfectly aligned with its proper motion. It could be the PWN (
pulsar wind nebula A pulsar wind nebula (PWN, plural PWNe), sometimes called a plerion (derived from the Greek "πλήρης", ''pleres'', meaning "full"), is a type of nebula sometimes found inside the shell of a supernova remnant (SNR), powered by winds generated ...
) of Geminga. While several other pulsars have comet tails of this type, the combination between the large structures revealed by XMM-Newton and the new data from Chandra is unprecedented. The data accumulated by XMM-Newton enabled Caraveo to take a significant step in understanding Geminga through studying the spectrum of the source as a function of phase. This suggests that some observations of the star are due to a small hot spot which rotates with the star. The result, with Caraveo as first author, published in
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
on July 16, 2004, is of great importance for the understanding of the physics of neutron stars, as the technique developed for Geminga is applicable to other neutron stars. Geminga is not the only example of a pulsar without radio emission. The satellite Fermi has discovered dozens of others, demonstrating that the predictions made on the basis of the phenomenology of Geminga were fundamentally correct. Following the publication of the catalog of gamma sources revealed by Fermi, Caraveo coordinated a program centered on the study of unidentified gamma-ray sources. The purpose of the exercise is to find sources with the highest ratio of X-ray to optical emissions, one of the characteristic signs of neutron stars.


Coordination efforts

In addition to data analysis, Caraveo was responsible for the study and planning of new missions. She was part of the Astronomy Working Group of the
European Space Agency , 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 ...
and contributed to the study and selection of new missions. After involvement in the spectrometer of INTEGRAL, Caraveo was part of the group proposing ESA's participation in the
James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...
(then the New Generation Space Telescope) In parallel, Caraveo took part in the development of new high-energy astrophysics missions such as the AGILE mission of the Italian Space Agency and the Swift and GLAST missions of NASA, for which she holds the position of Co-Investigator. Caraveo is also responsible for the contract the
Italian Space Agency The Italian Space Agency ( it, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana; ASI) is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entit ...
(ASI) signed for the financing of activities related to astrophysical mission GLAST (now Fermi) of NASA. Within
ASTRONET Astronet is a consortium which gather European funding agencies in order to establish a comprehensive long-term planning for the development of European astronomy. The consortium started on September 1, 2005. Participants *Centre national de ...
, Caraveo was co-chair of the panel dedicated to high-energy astrophysics. Caraveo was vice-coordinator of the panel of Italy's aerospace National Operational Program (NOP). She is currently responsible for the participation of
INAF The National Institute for Astrophysics ( it, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, or INAF) is an Italian research institute in astronomy and astrophysics, founded in 1999. INAF funds and operates twenty separate research facilities, which in turn e ...
in the
Cherenkov Telescope Array The Cherenkov Telescope Array or CTA is a multinational, worldwide project to build a new generation of ground-based gamma-ray instrument in the energy range extending from some tens of GeV to about 300 TeV. It is proposed as an open observatory a ...
.


Awards

Caraveo shared the Bruno Rossi Prize of the
American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...
with colleagues in 2007, 2011, and 2012 for work on the Swift, Fermi, and Agile projects. She was awarded the Italian National Presidential Prize in 2009 for contributions to the understanding of the issue of high energy neutron stars. In March 2014 she received the "Outstanding Achievement Award" from Women in Aerospace-Europe. In June 2014 Thomson Reuters included her in the list of "Highly Cited Researchers" in the discipline "Space Science".


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caraveo, Patrizia A. Living people 1954 births Italian astrophysicists