The EXOSS mission for hard X-ray astronomyThe basis for the Energetic X-ray Observatory on Space Station is described. Attention is given to the principal scientific objectives of EXOSS, namely, to study in detail AGN and quasars (some 10,000 should be detectable) as well as compact Galactic sources (accreting white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes), and to probe both nonthermal and high-temperature thermal phenomena and the fundamental nature of these objects. The principal technical characteristics of the EXOSS baseline instrument, which overlap in sensitivity in the approximately 40-to-60-keV band, are presented. EXOSS should facilitate efforts to determine: the central power source and the dominant emission mechanisms in AGN, the ways in which the various AGN classes differ as hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray emitters, and the contribution of AGN to the diffuse hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray background.
Document ID
19910063395
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Grindlay, Jonathan E. (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Cambridge, MA, United States)
Prince, Thomas A. (California Institute of Technology Pasadena, United States)
Weisskopf, M. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Skinner, G. (Birmingham, University United Kingdom)
Date Acquired
August 14, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1990
Subject Category
Astronomy
Meeting Information
Meeting: High-energy astrophysics in the 21st century