- ASTRO-E
ASTRO-E and ASTRO-EII (or Astro-E2) are Japanese
X-ray astronomy satellites built primarily byJAXA . In2000 the Astro-E launch failed (with the satellite falling into the ocean), so a replacement called Astro-EII was launched onJuly 10 ,2005 . Astro-EII has high spectroscopic resolution together with a very wide energy band, ranging from soft X-rays up to gamma-rays (0.3--600 keV). High resolution spectroscopy and wide-band are essential factors to physically investigate high energy astronomical phenomena, such asblack holes andsupernovae . One such feature, thebroad Iron K line , may be key to more direct imaging of black holes. After a successful launch, ASTRO-EII was nicknamed Suzaku which means "red bird of the south."The spacecraft functioned flawlessly until
July 29 ,2005 when the first of many occurrences of a mysterious vacuum system malfunction occurred. OnAugust 8 ,2005 this malfunction caused the entireliquid helium to boil off into space. This effectively shut down the XRS which is the spacecrafts primary instrument. The two other instruments, XIS and HXD, are unaffected by this malfunction. It is planned to integrate the XRS into the proposed NeXT x-ray observation satellite planned for launch in 2012. [http://www.oa.uj.edu.pl/2006jets/talks/Fujimoto/Fujimoto.pdf]ASTRO-E2 Instruments
* X-ray Telescope (XRT)
* X-ray Spectrometer (XRS)
* X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS)
* Hard X-ray Detector (HXD)
** Uses Gadolinium Silicate crystal (GSO), Gd2SiO5(Ce) [http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0611232 Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) on Board Suzaku] , T. Takahashi et al. 2006]
** Uses Bismuth Germanate crystal (BGO), Bi4Ge3O12References
External links
* [http://www.jaxa.jp/missions/projects/sat/astronomy/astro_e2/index_e.html JAXA Suzaku (Astro-EII) mission description]
* [http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/suzaku/index.shtml JAXA/ISAS Suzaku (Astro-EII) mission overview]
* [http://www.astro.isas.ac.jp/suzaku/index.html.en JAXA/ISAS Suzaku Information for Researchers]
* [http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/j/snews/2006/0126.shtml JAXA report presentation of failure analysis of XRS] (in Japanese)
* [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050712.html Astronomy Picture of the Day: Launch of the Red Bird]
* [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/astro-e2/main/index.html NASA Astro-E2 mission description]
* [http://suzaku.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/astroe_lc/ NASA/GSFC Suzaku Learning Center]
* [http://universe.gsfc.nasa.gov/xrays/programs/astroe/xrs.html NASA/GSFC XRS-2 project page]
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