The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

• Published in: arXiv.org 2012-10
• Main Authors: Mitsuda, Kazuhisa, Angelini, Lorella, Arnaud, Keith, Asai, Makoto, Baluta, Chris, Bamba, Aya, Blandford, Roger, Brown, Greg, Cackett, Ed, Costantini, Elisa, de Plaa, Jelle, Jan-Willem den Herder, DiPirro, Michael, Doty, John, Fabian, Andrew, Foster, Adam, Fujimoto, Ryuichi, Funk, Stefan, Furuzawa, Akihiro, Galeazzi, Massimiliano, Hwang, Una, Ishibashi, Kazunori, Ishida, Manabu, Iwata, Naoko, Iyomoto, Naoko, Kamae, Tuneyoshi, Kataoka, Jun, Kawahara, Hajime, Kawaharada, Madoka, Kilbourne, Caroline, Kimura, Masashi, Kinugasa, Kenzo, Kitamoto, Shunji, Kitayama, Tetsu, Kohmura, Takayoshi, Kosaka, Tatsuro, Koujelev, Alex, Koyama, Katsuji, Kubota, Aya, Kunieda, Hideyo, LaMassa, Stephanie, Laurent, Philippe, Lebrun, Francois, Knox, Long, Maeda, Yoshitomo, Makishima, Kazuo, Marchand, Genevieve, Miller, Eric, Miyazawa, Takuya, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Mori, Koji, Mushotzky, Richard, Nagano, Housei, Nagino, Ryo, Nakamori, Takeshi, Nishioka, Yusuke, Nobukawa, Masayoshi, Nomachi, Masaharu, Ogawa, Hiroyuki, Ogawa, Mina, Ohashi, Takaya, Ohno, Masanori, Okajima, Takashi, Okazaki, Tsuyoshi, Paerels, Frits, Parmar, Arvind, Petre, Robert, Porter, F Scott, Ramsey, Brian, Sakai, Shin-ichiro, Sanders, Jeremy, Sato, Goro, Sato, Yoichi, Shibano, Yasuko, Shimada, Takanobu, Simmons, Cynthia, Sneiderman, Gary, Sugita, Satoshi, Szymkowiak, Andrew, Takahashi, Hiromitsu, Takei, Yoh, Tamagawa, Toru, Tamura, Takayuki, Tashiro, Makoto, Tomida, Hiroshi, Tsujimoto, Masahiro, Tsuru, Takeshi, Uchiyama, Yasunobu, Uchiyama, Hideki, Ueda, Yoshihiro, Ueno, Shiro, Uno, Shinichiro, Urry, Meg, de Vries, Cor, Wada, Atsushi, Yamada, Shinya, Yamasaki, Noriko, Yatsu, Yoichi, Yonetoku, Daisuke, Yoshida, Atsumasa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bandpass; Cameras; CCD cameras; Focal plane; Foils; Gamma ray detectors; Gamma rays; Imaging spectrometers; Multilayers; Soft x rays; Space missions; Spectral resolution; Spectrometers; Universe; X ray imagery; X ray mirrors; X ray optics; X ray telescopes
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1210.4378

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.