Exosat - The new extrasolar X-ray observatory

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Exosat Satellite, Spaceborne Astronomy, X Ray Astronomy, Lunar Occultation, Scintillation Counters, Spaceborne Telescopes, X Ray Telescopes

Scientific paper

Exosat, the ESA satellite for the direct-pointing and lunar-occultation observation of X-ray sources beyond the solar system, is characterized. Exosat was launched into a highly eccentric orbit (apogee 200,000 km, perigee 500 km) almost perpendicular to that of the moon on May 26, 1983. The instrumentation includes two low-energy imaging telescopes (LEIT) with Wolter I X-ray optics (for the 0.04-2 keV energy range), a medium-energy experiment using Ar/CO2 and Xe/CO2 detectors (for 1.5-50 keV), a Xe/He gas scintillation spectrometer (GSPC) (covering 2-80 keV), and a reprogrammable onboard data-processing computer. Exosat is capable of observing an object (in the direct-pointing mode) for up to 80 hours and of locating sources to within at least 10 arcsec with the LEIT and about 2 arcsec with GSPC. The past development of extrasolar-X-ray-astronomy satellites and the goals of the Exosat mission are discussed.

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