The Astro-H Mission and High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy

Physics – Optics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (JAXA/ISAS) is developing a major new high-energy astrophysics observatory. Astro-H will provide broadband, high-resolution spectroscopy and imaging over the 0.3-600 keV band using four co-aligned instruments operated simultaneously. The mission will have major US participation supported by NASA as well as contributions from Europe and Canada. For high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy, the soft x-ray spectrometer (SXS) will feature an x-ray calorimeter spectrometer and x-ray mirror. The instrument will cover the energy range 0.3-12 keV and is expected to have an energy resolution better than 5 eV (FWHM) with a collecting area of over 200 cm2 at 6 keV. The cooling system will have both cryogenic and mechanical coolers for up to five years of operation. The SXS is a joint collaboration between NASA/GSFC, ISAS/JAXA and SRON, and the NASA participation was selected as an Explorers Mission of Opportunity in June 2008. As part of this investigation, a fully supported US guest observer program was also proposed and is under review by NASA.
Other instruments on Astro-H include a soft x-ray imager (SXI) consisting of a large area CCD camera with 35 arcmin field-of-view and a hard x-ray imager (HXI) that uses focusing x-ray optics combined with both double-sided silicon strip detectors and CdTe array. The 12-m focal length optical system will provide an effective area of 300 cm2 at 30 keV, and high sensitivity from 10-80 keV using multilayer x-ray mirrors with 2-4 arcmin imaging. The soft gamma detector (SGD) is a non-focusing instrument based on a new, narrow-field-of-view Compton telescope with an energy range of 10-600 keV and sensitivity at 300 keV that is more than 10 times higher than Suzaku. Astro-H is planned for launch in 2014 aboard a JAXA HII-A rocket.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The Astro-H Mission and High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Astro-H Mission and High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Astro-H Mission and High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1095281

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.