Cosmic physics in the year 2000. Scientific perspectives and new instrumentation

This volume contains the Proceedings of the 8. GIFCO Symposium, which was held in Como (Italy) from April 8. to 10. 1997. The Proceedings are introduced by two general lectures. The first of these highlights the x-ray astronomy satellite Beppo-SAX (named after Beppo Occhialini, President of GIFCO for many years), the success of which is due also to GIFCO researches. The second one presents the research activity in Cosmic Ray Physics in Milan between 1940 and 1960, well before the birth of GIFCO. The remaining invited lectures and contributions, grouped in four sections, namely a) High Energy Astrophysics (with special attention to Beppo-SAX results, b) Sun/Earth Relationship and the Interplanetary Medium (with special attention to observations from Antarctica, c) Cosmic Dust and Interstellar Matter, d) Cosmic Ray Physics, show the extent of GIFCO's present research activities. The Symposium was a national one; therefore, the oral presentations were mainly in Italian. The Proceedings, however, are written in English, to make the results available to the larger international astrophysical community, with which GIFCO people are used to work