The EXOSAT Observatory
The European Space Agency's X-ray Observatory, EXOSAT, was operational from May 1983 to April 1986. During that time, EXOSAT made 1780 observations of a wide variety of objects, including active galactic nuclei, stellar coronae, cataclysmic variables, white dwarfs, X-ray binaries, clusters of galaxies, and supernova remnants.
Mission Characteristics
Lifetime : May 26, 1983 - April 9, 1986Energy Range : 0.05-50 keV
Special Features : 90 Hours highly-eccentric Earth orbit
Payload :
- 2 Wolter Type I grazing incidence Low Energy (LE; 0.05-2 keV) Imaging Telescopes, FOV ~ 2°, peak effective area 10 cm2 each with
- Channel Multiplier Array (CMA; 0.05-2.0keV)
eff. area 0.4 - 10 cm2, FOV ~2°, ~18 arcsecond spatial resolution - Position Sensitive Detector (PSD)
- Transmission Gratings (TGS)
500 lines mm-1(LE2), 1000 lines mm-1(LE1). Used in conjunction with the CMA detectors.
- Channel Multiplier Array (CMA; 0.05-2.0keV)
- A Medium Energy (ME) Proportional Counter
1-50 keV, FOV 45 arcmin, 1600 cm2 - A Gas Scintillation (GS) Proportional Counter
2-20 keV, 100 cm2
- Discovery of the Quasi Period Oscillations in LMXRB and X-ray Pulsars
- Comprehensive study of AGN variability
- Observing LMXRB and CV over many orbital periods
- Measuring iron line in galactic and extra galactic sources
- Obtaining low-energy high-resolution spectra
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Last modified: Thursday, 26-Jun-2003 13:48:33 EDT