Massimo is a Senior Researcher at the Astrophysical and Space Science Observatory (OAS) of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in Bologna, currently head of the High-Energy Astrophysics Division of INAF and a member of the ESA Astronomy Working Group.
His research is focused on the study of high-energy observations of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) to understand how supermassive black holes in galaxies form, evolve and accrete and eject matter along cosmic time. In particular, he has been deeply involved in probing and understanding the existence and characterization of massive, relativistic outflows (aka Ultra Fast Outflows, UFO) in nearby AGN and more distant quasars.
His primary focus today is to use XMM-Newton to understand better UFOs and as the pathfinder for more detailed studies with Athena. On Athena, he is currently chair of the X-IFU Science Advisory Team (XSAT) and co-chair of the Science Working Group 2 (the one for the Energetic Universe), and looking forward to playing a bit with new exciting high energy resolution XRISM and, of course, Athena spectra.
Link to the PDF version.
Image: Representation of energic collimated and uncollimated winds released by the SMBH at the center of a galaxy. Right: simulation of Athena X-IFU spectrum resulting from a fast wind showing two ionizations and velocity components. Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab. Composition, ACO Team. More info #AthenaNuggets 4.