Science with hot astrophysical plasmas

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances and future prospects in studying hot astrophysical plasmas through X-ray spectroscopy, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in understanding hot gas across various cosmic objects.

Contribution

It provides an overview of hot plasma research, emphasizing the role of X-ray spectroscopy and discussing the implications of upcoming satellite missions.

Findings

X-ray emission and absorption reveal properties of hot plasmas

Current models are challenged by new high-resolution data

Hot gases are prevalent from solar system to cosmic scales

Abstract

We present some recent highlights and prospects for the study of hot astrophysical plasmas. Hot plasmas can be studied primarily through their X-ray emission and absorption. Most astrophysical objects, from solar system objects to the largest scale structures of the Universe, contain hot gas. In general we can distinguish collisionally ionised gas and photoionised gas. We introduce several examples of both classes and show where the frontiers of this research in astrophysics can be found. We put this also in the context of the current and future generation of X-ray spectroscopy satellites. The data coming from these missions challenge the models that we have for the calculation of the X-ray spectra.