Our Universe is pervaded with X-ray sources. When X-ray photons traverse through interstellar space, they can be scattered by dust particles floating in space, producing scattering rings and halos around X-ray sources. This scattering effect can be used to study the distribution of interstellar dust, as well as the size distribution, composition and structure of dust grains. It also affects the observational properties of X-ray sources such as the X-ray spectral shape and variability. Thus dust scattering is both an important and valuable research topic. In this talk, I will present the current research status and recent highlights in the field of dust scattering, and discuss some future developments in this area. This includes new opportunities brought by new satellites such as GAIA, EP and XRISM, as well as the promising prospects anticipated from next-generation projects like HUBS and Lynx. Finally, I will briefly introduce the capabilities of China's first X-ray focusing imaging satellite, Einstein Probe (EP), which was successfully launch in 9th Jan. 2024, and provide some updates on its latest status in-orbit.

BIO

Dr. Chichuan Jin is a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC), Chinese Academy of Science. He graduated from the Dept. of Physics, Tsinghua University in 2008, and obtained PhD from Durham University, UK in 2012. After that he worked as a visiting scholar at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), then joined the Qianxuesen Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Space Technology as a research scientist, working on the design of space missions. Then he spent two years at MPE, Germany as a postodc. Since 2018 he joined the Einstein Probe (EP) team at NAOC as a deputy chief designer of the science application system. He is a member of EP science management committee and the chair of TDE and AGN panel. He mainly works on the design of EP scientific operation and observation strategies, development of advanced data analysis tools, and the organization of scientific activities. His main research interests include the multi-wavelength observations of AGN and TDE, X-ray binaries and interstellar X-ray dust scattering. He has published more than 60 journal papers, and has been the PI of 15 observing programs of large space telescopes such as XMM-Newton, Chandra and NuSTAR.