Constellation-X mission: science objectives and implementation plan
Constellation-X mission: science objectives and implementation plan
复制标题
Constellation-X任务：科学目标和实施计划
DOI：
10.1117/12.461276
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发表时间：
2003
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
H. Tananbaum
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
N. White;H. Tananbaum
星座-X使命是一个大收集面积的X射线设施，重点是在高光谱分辨率（R ~ 300- 3000）下进行观测，同时覆盖宽能带（0.25-60千电子伏）。通过增加望远镜孔径和利用高效的光谱仪，使命将实现比目前高分辨率X射线光谱学任务高25-100倍的灵敏度。星座-X是X射线天文学的大型地面光学望远镜，如凯克和VLT，补充了钱德拉的高空间分辨率能力。正在为该使命开发的关键技术包括轻型高通量X射线光学器件、增强X射线光学器件硬X射线性能的多层涂层、微量热计光谱仪阵列、低功率和低重量CCD阵列、轻型光栅和硬X射线探测器。星座-X将首次使微弱X射线源群的高分辨率X射线光谱学成为常规问题。随着其能力的增强，星座-X将解决许多基本的天体物理学问题，例如观察星系团的形成和演化，限制宇宙的重子含量，观察黑洞事件视界附近的强引力效应，并利用这些效应来确定黑洞旋转。星座-X使命在最近的两份国家科学院报告中得到了强烈的赞同：天文学和天体物理学调查报告和宇宙物理学委员会报告。
The Constellation-X mission is a large collecting area X-ray facility, emphasizing observations at high spectral resolution (R ~ 300--3000) while covering a broad energy band (0.25-60 keV). By increasing the telescope aperture and utilizing efficient spectrometers the mission will achieve a factor of 25-100 increased sensitivity over current high resolution X-ray spectroscopy missions. Constellation-X is the X-ray astronomy equivalent of large ground-based optical telescopes such as the Keck and the VLT, complementing the high spatial resolution capabilities of Chandra. Key technologies under development for the mission include lightweight high throughput X-ray optics, multilayer coatings to enhance the hard X-ray performance of X-ray optics, micro-calorimeter spectrometer arrays, low power and low weight CCD arrays, lightweight gratings and hard X-ray detectors. Constellation-X will for the first time make high resolution X-ray spectroscopy of faint X-ray source populations a matter of routine. With its increased capabilities, Constellation-X will address many fundamental astrophysics questions such as observing the formation and evolution of clusters of galaxies, constraining the Baryon content of the Universe, observing the effects of strong gravity close to the event horizon of black holes and using these effects to determine the black hole rotation. The Constellation-X mission has received strong endorsements in two recent National Academy of Sciences reports: the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey and the Committee on the Physics of the Universe.