Search results for "X-Ray Astronomy"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
Thermal shielding of the SIMBOL-X mirror assembly
2007
The thermal modeling of the SIMBOL-X X-ray telescope has shown that thermal shielding of both the telescope ends is one possibility to ensure temperature uniformity of the mirror and to reduce the required heating power. The design of the thermal shielding must minimize the thermal exchange in a trade off between transparency of the shields to soft X-rays and mechanical robustness. We discuss two possible designs of the thermal shielding of the mirror module and show transmission curves at X-ray wavelengths.
Calibration of the XRT-SOLARB flat mirror samples at the XACT Facility of INAF-OAPA
2004
The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) experiment on-board the Japanese satellite SOLAR-B (launch in 2006) is equipped with a modified Wolter I grazing incidence X-ray telescope (focal length 2700 mm) to image the full Sun at ~ 1.5" angular resolution onto a 2048 x 2048 back illuminated CCD focal plane detector. The X-ray telescope consisting of one single reflecting shell is coated with ion beam sputtered Iridium over a binding layer of Chromium to provide nearly 5 square centimetres effective area at 60 A. We present preliminary results of X-ray calibrations of the XRT flat mirror samples performed at the X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing (XACT) facility of INAF-OAPA. We describe the instrumenta…
Development of the wide field imager for Athena
2015
The WFI (Wide Field Imager) instrument is planned to be one of two complementary focal plane cameras on ESA's next X-ray observatory Athena. It combines unprecedented survey power through its large field of view of 40 arcmin x 40 arcmin together with excellent count-rate capability (>= 1 Crab). The energy resolution of the silicon sensor is state-of-the-art in the energy band of interest from 0.2 keV to 15 keV, e.g. the full width at half maximum of a line at 6 keV will be <= 150 eV until the end of the nominal mission phase. This performance is accomplished by using DEPFET active pixel sensors with a pixel size of 130 μm x 130 μm well suited to the on-axis angular resolution of 5 arcsec of…
The Palermo XACT facility: a new 35 m long soft x-ray beam-line for the development and calibration of next-generation x-ray observatories
2006
The X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing (XACT) facility of the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo has recently undergone a major upgrade with the design and construction of a 35 meter long vacuum beam-line operating in the soft X-rays (0.1-20 keV) and the addition of new hardware to meet the requirements for testing and calibration of next generation X-ray missions. We report on the present configuration of the facility and briefly survey the range of its applications.
CALOS: an experiment to study the solar corona with an array of NTD Ge microcalorimeters
2002
In response to the Italian Space Agency announcement "New Ideas for Space Missions", we have proposed an observatory "CALorimetri per Osservazioni Solari" (CALOS) that will perform spatially resolved (Deltatheta similar to 2) X-ray spectroscopy of the solar corona over the 0.1 - 10 keV band using an array of NTD germanium microcalorimeters. The observatory will also include an X-ray polarimeter of radically new design that will study the hard X-ray solar emission and its polarization and will serve as a flare alarm.
Additional Evidence for a Pulsar Wind Nebula in the Heart of SN 1987A from Multiepoch X-Ray Data and MHD Modeling
2022
Since the day of its explosion, supernova (SN) 1987A has been closely monitored to study its evolution and to detect its central compact relic. In fact, the formation of a neutron star is strongly supported by the detection of neutrinos from the SN. However, besides the detection in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) data of a feature that is compatible with the emission arising from a proto-pulsar wind nebula (PWN), the only hint for the existence of such elusive compact object is provided by the detection of hard emission in NuSTAR data up to ~ 20 keV. We report on the simultaneous analysis of multi-epoch observations of SN 1987A performed with Chandra, XMM-Newton and…
The Large Area Detector onboard the eXTP mission
2018
The eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry) mission is a major project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and China National Space Administration (CNSA) currently performing an extended phase A study and proposed for a launch by 2025 in a low-earth orbit. The eXTP scientific payload envisages a suite of instruments (Spectroscopy Focusing Array, Polarimetry Focusing Array, Large Area Detector and Wide Field Monitor) offering unprecedented simultaneous wide-band X-ray spectral, timing and polarimetry sensitivity. A large European consortium is contributing to the eXTP study and it is expected to provide key hardware elements, including a Large Area Detector (LAD). The LAD instrumen…
XIPE: the x-ray imaging polarimetry explorer
2016
XIPE, the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer, is a mission dedicated to X-ray Astronomy. At the time of writing XIPE is in a competitive phase A as fourth medium size mission of ESA (M4). It promises to reopen the polarimetry window in high energy Astrophysics after more than 4 decades thanks to a detector that efficiently exploits the photoelectric effect and to X-ray optics with large effective area. XIPE uniqueness is time-spectrally-spatially- resolved X-ray polarimetry as a breakthrough in high energy astrophysics and fundamental physics. Indeed the payload consists of three Gas Pixel Detectors at the focus of three X-ray optics with a total effective area larger than one XMM mirror bu…
The IXO Wide-Field Imager
2010
The Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is an X-ray imaging spectrometer based on a large monolithic DePFET (Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor) Active Pixel Sensor. Filling an area of 10 × 10 cm² with a format of 1024 × 1024 pixels it will cover a field of view of 18 arcmin. The pixel size of 100 × 100 μm² corresponds to a fivefold oversampling of the telescope's expected 5 arcsec point spread function. The WFI's basic DePFET structure combines the functionalities of sensor and integrated amplifier with nearly Fano-limited energy resolution and high efficiency from 100 eV to 15 keV. The development of dedicated control and amplifier ASICs allows for…
The wide-field imager for IXO: status and future activities
2010
The Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is an X-ray imaging spectrometer based on a large monolithic DePFET (Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor) Active Pixel Sensor. Filling an area of 10 x 10 cm2 with a format of 1024 x 1024 pixels it will cover a field of view of 18 arcmin. The pixel size of 100 x 100 μm2 corresponds to a fivefold oversampling of the telescope's expected 5 arcsec point spread function. The WFI's basic DePFET structure combines the functionalities of sensor and integrated amplifier with nearly Fano-limited energy resolution and high efficiency from 100 eV to 15 keV. The development of dedicated control and amplifier ASICs allows for…