About the Astro-H/SXS:
Science & Technical Requirements
Please also see the Astro-H Timeline and Mission Information.
The Soft X-ray Spectrometer combines a lightweight Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) paired with a X-ray Calorimeter Spectrometer (XCS), providing non-dispersive 7 eV (requirement; 4 eV goal) resolution in the 0.3-10 keV bandpass. The SXS represents a significant advance over all current high-resolution spectrometers, as shown in these two figures:
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| SXS Effective Area compared to other high-resolution X-ray spectrometers. | SXS Line resolution power (defined as resolution*sqrt(area)) compared to other high-resolution missions, plus a typical imaging CCD. |
The remaining specifications are set by the science goals as follows:
| Science Objectives | Scientific Measurement Requirements | Performance Parameter | Perfomance Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explore how galaxies and clusters of galaxies form and evolve | Resolve He-like triplet diagnostic in Ne through Ni | Spectral Resolution | 7 eV FWHM |
| Observe 30 elliptical and starburst galaxies, plus 30 clusters, with 100 ksec exposures | Mission Length | 3 years | |
| Observing Efficiency | 45% | ||
| Measure lines from K shells of astrophysically abundant elements N-Ni with Fe, Ni L-shell lines in galaxies at low redshift | Energy Range | 0.4-12 keV | |
| All observations photon-limited in 100 ksec exposures | Non X-ray Background | 1.5x10-3 ph/s/keV | |
| Probe the environment close to black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs | Measure sample of 30 elliptical and 15 starburst galaxies in 100 ksec exposures | Effective Area at 1 keV | 180 cm^2 |
| Measure broad Fe line features in Galactic Black Hole Candidates | Telemetry/ Detector Rate | 10 kbs/150 cts/s | |
Measure changes in spectral line properties on characteristic times (1 ksec) in AGN |
Effective Area at 7 keV | 210 cm^2 | |
| Measure line centroids to determine doppler shifts from outflowing AGN winds to 100 km/s at Fe K, line broadening to 500 km/s | Absolute energy determination | 2 eV | |
| Investigate the nature of dark matter and energy on large scales in the Universe | 30 clusters of galaxies (raster scanned) to 1/3rd virial radius at z<0.05 | Field of View | 2.8x2.8 arcmin (6x6 pixels) |
| Resolve 100 kpc structures in cluster survey at z=0.05 | PSF & Pointing | 1.7 arcmin HPD | |
| Keep point source centered on specified pixel | Pointing Stability | 5 arcsec reconstructed |
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