A NEW VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE
Galileo Galilei discovered new worlds with his telescope. Over the centuries, a picture of a calm and stable universe emerged - the planets untiringly orbited the sun and the stars quietly burned their hydrogen into helium over the eons of time.

X-ray astronomy has widened our view: the universe also contains violent forces and rapid processes. A window has opened towards the most extreme environments: dying stars, neutron stars and black holes. As in the days of Galilei, technical innovations have rapidly extended the boundaries of human knowledge.