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11/03/08IXO Science Team Meeting January 28-29, 2009There will be a full IXO science team meeting January 28 - 39, 2009 in Cambridge, MA This meeting will focus on preparing for the upcoming U.S. Decadal Survey, and will feature presentations by the Science Definition Team (SDT), the Instrument Working Group (IWG), the Telescope Working Group (IWG), and the ESA, JAXA and NASA projects.Read More10/03/08IXO Special Session at the January AAS MeetingIXO will be featured in a special session at the January Meeting of the American Astrophysical Society January 4-8, 2009 in Long Beach, CA.Read More9/30/08View talks from Exploring the Hot Universe with IXO meetingThe talks from the Exploring the Hot Universe with IXO meeting held at the Max-Planck Institute in Garching are available. Please use the link below to access the presentation webpage. Read More |
The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is a new X-ray telescope with joint participation from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This project supersedes both NASA's Constellation-X and ESA's XEUS mission concepts. In mid-2008, a officials from ESA, NASA, and JAXA headquarters agreed to conduct a joint study of IXO with a single merged set of top-level science goals. This agreement established key science measurement requirements. The spacecraft configuration for the IXO study is a mission featuring a single large X-ray mirror and an extendible optical bench, with a focal length of 20-25 m, and a suite of focal plane instruments. The instruments under study for the IXO concept include: a wide field X-ray imaging detector, a high-spectral-resolution imaging X-ray spectrometer (calorimeter), a hard X-ray imaging detector, an X-ray grating spectrometer, high timing resolution spectrometer, and an X-ray polarimeter. The IXO mission concept will submitted to the U.S. decadal process and ESA's Cosmic Vision Plan. Read More About IXO ScienceRead More About IXO Technology |
With IXO's high-throughput, scientists will be able to study the high-energy Universe in more detail than ever before. The science goals of IXO include:
Black Holes and Matter Under Extreme Conditions
Formation and Evolution of Galaxies, Clusters, and Large Scale Structure
Life Cycles of Matter and Energy
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IXO will be a satellite observatory that will launch on either an Atlas V or Arianne V rocket to an orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point, 1.5 million km away. OpticsThe IXO optics will consist of nested grazing-incidence mirrors to focus X-ray photons onto a detector plane. There are two candidate technologies under study for the IXO mirror: slumped glass and silicon pore optics. InstrumentationBehind the optics, the IXO instrument suite includes a wide field X-ray imaging detector, a high-spectral-resolution imaging X-ray spectrometer (calorimeter), an X-ray grating spectrometer, high timing resolution spectrometer, and an X-ray polarimeter. Read More |
IXO is being developed by an international collaboration that includes members appointed by ESA, JAXA, and NASA. Advisory GroupsSeveral key advisory groups of scientists and engineers are guiding the IXO development. A coordination group oversees the work of the science definition team, the telescope working group, and the instrument working group. IXO SupportersIn addition to these advisory groups, more than 200 scientists from over 60 institutions around the world are actively involved with IXO. Interested scientists can keep up to date on IXO developments by signing up for the 'ixo-supporters' email list. The IXO supporters provide help and input to the advisory groups listed above. Many of these supporters are members of previous Constellation-X and XEUS science and instrumentation teams. Read More |
LaunchIXO is currently planned for launch in 2020. Studies to determine the launch vehicle, either the Ariane V or Atlas V rockets, are currently underway. Science OperationsIXO will be designed to operate for a minimum of 5 years, with a goal of 10 years, so IXO science operations are anticipated to last from 2020 to 2030. Decadal Survey/Cosmic VisionsDuring 2009, the IXO mission team is focusing on providing input to the National Research Council's Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey committee (Astro2010) and the ESA Cosmic Vision process. Note that Constellation-X was ranked as the second space-based priority behind JWST in the 2000 Decadal Survey, and XEUS was selected as a finalist in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. |