Caption: Artist's impression of a photon arriving at one of Athena/X-IFU micro-calorimeters. These highly sensitive heat sensors are capable of measuring the tiny amount of heat released when a photon is absorbed.

Additional comments: This image was extracted from the 2020 X-IFU movie, that can be watched on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WvV6tLDNF8&t=58s. For more information: http://x-ifu.irap.omp.eu/x-ifu/x-ifu-in-anutshell

Creation date: 05/2020. Version #: 1.

Credits: IRAP/CNRS/UT3/CNES/Fab&Fab.