1) Title:  “XXX IAU General Assembly: impressions from participants (40-60 min)”

2) Speaker: S. Ciprini (SSDC-ASI, INFN, Italy)

Title:  “The e-ASTROGAM project: a future space observatory for MeV and GeV gamma rays”

Abstract: Several space-borne instruments have probed the sky in hard X rays (till about 100 keV: NuSTAR, Swift, INTEGRAL) and in gamma rays (starting from 0.1 GeV: Fermi-LAT, AGILE) with considerable discoveries and scientific return. On the other hand, the challenging energy band between these two energy bands has remained mostly unexplored since the COMPTEL intrument on board of the CGRO (1991-2000). There are several ideas and proposals for future space-based MeV gamma-ray observatories within the wide high-energy community. One of the most interesting projects is e-ASTROGAM, a breakthrough, large field of view, space observatory project, with wide international interest. It is based on a detector composed by a silicon tracker, a calorimeter, and an anticoincidence system, dedicated to the study of the Universe in the photon energy range from 0.3 MeV to 3 GeV. The lower energy limit can be pushed to energies as low as 150 keV for the tracker, and to 30 keV for calorimetric detection. The mission is based on an advanced space-proven detector technology, with unprecedented medium-energy gamma-ray sensitivity, angular and energy resolution, combined with polarimetric capability. Thanks to its performance in the MeV-GeV domain, substantially improving its predecessors, e-ASTROGAM will open a new window on the sky, making pioneering observations of the most powerful Galactic and extragalactic sources, and filling the wide gap left unobserved between Athena and CTA.

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