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Recent News Items

04/30/2009

The IXO Team has submitted a Request For Information document to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey Committee

The document has now been posted to the web site.

Download PDF

04/01/2009 – 04/03/2009

The IXO poster is presented at the Irvine IMBH meeting

The IXO poster "Science with the International X-ray Observatory" is presented on the 5th UC Irvine Center for Cosmology Workshop: Intermediate-Mass Black Holes: from First Light to Galactic Nuclei, which is organized and hosted by the Center for Cosmology, University of California, Irvine. Location: Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies. Date: April 1 – 3, 2009.

5th UC Irvine Center for Cosmology Workshop web site

Download the IXO poster

03/27/09

A rich archive of previous Con-X and XEUS papers has been released

A rich archive of previous Con-X and XEUS papers has been released. Before joining forces for the IXO project, NASA and ESA were separately pursuing two different, but complementary, advanced X-ray missions: Con-X and XEUS, respectively, aiming at precision X-ray spectroscopy and high sensitivity studies of the high-z Universe. We list here the most relevant papers that document the evolution of Con-X and XEUS, and that thus represent IXO's illustrious "pedigree".

See "Before IXO: Con-X and XEUS"

03/27/09

Decadal Survey Town Hall Meeting

March 27 2009, 1:00-5:30 pm, Schafler Auditorium, Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD.

To assist the National Research Council's Decadal Survey Committee in gathering input and ideas from all segments of the astronomical community, The Space Telescope Science Institute and the Johns Hopkins University will host a Decadal Survey Town Hall meeting. The meeting is open to the public, and astronomers are encouraged to bring their ideas and opinions.

Decadal Survey Town Hall meeting web page

03/24/09

New IXO spacecraft pictures are available

The Observatory consists of four major modules: Instrument, Deployment, Spacecraft, and Optics. This architecture facilitates parallel development and integration and test. The IXO spacecraft can be built using existing technology. Most components are “off-the-shelf.” The IXO system is robust. Full redundancy along with numerous failsafe mechanisms for contingency mode operations assure that no single failure will corrupt this mission.

IXO Spacecraft

02/15/09

Astro 2010 Decadal Review White Papers Submitted

The Astro 2010 Decadal Review has drawn enthusiastic participation from IXO supporters. We list here the 15 white papers most directly relevant to IXO science. Note that there are many more white papers submitted on high-energy astrophysics topics related to the IXO mission. These white papers represent contributions from hundreds of scientists from the United States, Europe, and Japan.

IXO Astro 2010 Decadal White Papers

02/11/09

IXO Science Team Meeting, July 3, 2009

We will have our next big science team meeting July 3, 2009 in Otaru, Japan, hosted by our JAXA colleagues. This meeting follows the Suzaku conference in Otaru, Japan (June 29-July 2).

Announcement: IXO Science Study Team Meeting

02/11/09

IXO Science Team Meeting, January 28-29, 2009

More than 200 astronomers convened in Boston, MA on Jan 28-29, 2009 at the IXO Team Meeting to discuss the IXO science and technology developments. Presentations by the Science Definition Team (SDT), the Instrument Working Group (IWG), the Telescope Working Group (IWG), and the ESA, JAXA, and NASA projects are posted to the web site.

IXO Science Team Meeting Presentations

01/30/09

IXO Special Session at the January AAS Meeting

More than 40 posters, covering science and technology for the IXO mission, were presented at the January 2009 AAS meeting in Long Beach, CA. These posters have now been posted to the web site, please have a look!

IXO Posters from January 6 Special Session