The scientific team that developed the Astro-H telescope space observatory, due to be launched into space on Friday, was led by Italo-Canadian astrophysicist Luigi Gallo. The instrument will be launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan. The ambitious project, which involves NASA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, is geared to analysing the high energy processes that take place in the universe with high precision instruments and spectroscopic analysis. Astro-H will study celestial bodies such as black holes and neutron stars, investigating the structure of the universe and its evolution.
Astro-H space observatory will be put into orbit by at the Tanegashima Space Center, in Japan
Luigi Gallo is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at St Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In wishing him well and offering his congratulations, the Italian Ambassador to Canada Gian Lorenzo Cornado said: “Professor Luigi Gallo’s role in the project will be crowned in a few days’ time when Astro-H is launched into orbit. It shows yet again the extraordinary achievements of the Italo-Canadian community which, as in this case, has made a huge contribution to the progress of scientific research.”
