Being based for the moment in EU I took the advantage of attending a couple of appealing topical meetings this June. First up was the X-ray Universe '23 meeting in Athens, Greece, held at the lovely Eugenides Foundation Digital Planetarium. It was great to hear about new results from IXPE, launched just over 18 months ago, and now with an impressive set of polarisation measurements on a wide range of sources to report. Excitement is building for the upcoming Einstein Probe and XRISM missions, both planned for launch in 2023. And finally the Athena mission saw frequent mention, following the excessive cost identified last year, which has motivated a reassessment and (moderate) downgrading of some of the capabilities. The "NewAthena" mission will be reassessed in November.

I travelled by bus, ferry and train over the weekend to Italy, for the First Vasto Accretion Meeting held in the lovely Palazzo d'Avalos up on the hill overlooking the marina and beach. A terrific program of talks featured great results on accretion at a wide range of scales, from AGN to white dwarfs and neutron stars. The social program was also first rate with plenty of opportunities for networking and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Hopefully the first of many future meetings!

Labels: 2023, meetings