The Athena X-ray Observatory: Community Support Portal is managed by the Athena Community Office (ACO), which has been established by ESA's Athena Science Study Team to support its role as focal point for the interests of the broad scientific community. The ACO is led by the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), and its activities are funded by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Cantabria (UC). Further ACO contributors are the University of Geneva, MPE and IRAP.

Access to, and use of, this website constitutes acceptance of the following general terms and conditions.

Neither ACO nor any other party involved in creating, producing or delivering the website shall be liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect or punitive damages arising out of users' access to, or use of, the website. The web portal does not guarantee the accuracy of information provided by external sources and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such data.

Though the ACO uses the best technical standards to control this website, material on it may inadvertently include technical inaccuracies or other errors. We should be grateful if users could notify us of any errors or inaccuracies they may find. Please note that users browse and use the website at their own risk. The UC and by extension, the ACO, does not warrant that the functional aspects of the website will be uninterrupted or error free or that this website, or the server that makes it available, are free of viruses or other harmful components. ACO may change material on the site without prior notice.

This website contains links and references to third-party websites. These are provided for the convenience and interest of users and on the part of ACO this implies neither responsibility for, nor approval of, information contained in these websites. ACO makes no warranty, either express or implied, as to the accuracy, availability or content of information, text, graphics which are not under the portal domain (the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu).

Unless specifically noted, the images and videos distributed from this public website, along with the texts of section's descriptions, press releases, announcements, activities, presentations and captions, are licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) (for information or educational purposes and non-commercial use is allowed), and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible. Some details on how to interpret this are given below for those who need further explanation:

  • The full image or footage credit must be presented in a clear and readable manner to all users, with the wording unaltered. The credit should not be hidden or disassociated from the image footage. Links should be active if the credit is online. Images and videos published on the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu are, unless explicitly stated otherwise, cleared for reuse without needing to contact the individuals or organizations listed. Their names must not be removed from the credit, however.
  • The text of section's descriptions, press releases, announcements, activities, presentations and captions should be credited to this web portal, except when used by media.
  • If an image includes a picture of an identifiable person, using that image for commercial purposes is not permitted.
  • Those images containing an artistic representation of the Athena satellite or the X-FU instrument are under the terms and conditions of the X-IFU website.

Note that this general permission does not extend to the use of the portal's logo, protected by trademarks and under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Any use, reproduction, publication, display, transmission, making available to the public or exploitation of the logo requires prior individual written authorization. Owners of external websites wishing to link to this portal may use our logo for the link, provided they have obtained prior authorization and on the condition that such use is clearly identifiable as a web link. None of these restrictions are applicable to the members of the Athena Working Groups/Topical Panels which can do a free use of the logo. Usage of the logo does not in any way imply endorsement by the Athena Science Study Team, the Athena Community Office or any other party.

Also, note that published scientific papers are not released under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) but under the proper licenses of their publication sites if applicable. By reproducing this portal's material, in part or in full, the user acknowledges the terms on which such use is permitted.

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