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STAR-X: Survey and Time-domain Astrophysical Research eXplorerSTAR-X is a MIDEX mission proposed to NASA in December 2021. Comprising an X-ray telescope (XRT) provided by GSFC and MIT, a UV telescope (UVT) provided by the University of Colorado, and a spacecraft (SC) provided by Ball Aerospace, STAR-X is designed to conduct time-domain survey and to respond rapidly to transient events discovered by other observatories such as LIGO, Rubin LSST, Roman WFIRST, and SKA. The key features of the XRT are its excellent PSF (2.5 arc-seconds half-power diameter), large effective area (1,800 cm2 at 1 keV), and large field of view (1 deg2), making it more than an order of magnitude more capable and more sensitive than Chandra and Swift/XRT to conduct survey and to find and study transient sources. The UVT has a 30-cm aperture with 5 filters covering the 160nm to 340nm band, providing simultaneous spectral coverage with the XRT and enabling reverberation mapping of accretion disk geometries around black holes. The SC is highly autonomous and is capable of fast slewing, enabling efficient raster scans and time-domain surveys. In particular, in combination with a state-of-the-art mission operations center at the University of Colorado, the SC can respond to targets of opportunity within 2 hours 90% of the time. With its nearly equatorial low-earth orbit, STAR-X’s telescopes will have low particle background, enabling them to have unprecedented sensitivity for measuring faint diffuse emissions from clusters of galaxies. STAR-X is a timely response to Astro2020’s recommendation for a space-based, sustaining time-domain and multi-messenger program.
Document ID
20220012451
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Presentation
Authors
William W. Zhang
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Date Acquired
August 11, 2022
Subject Category
Instrumentation And Photography
Meeting Information
Meeting: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation Conference
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Country: CA
Start Date: July 17, 2022
End Date: July 22, 2022
Sponsors: International Society for Optics and Photonics
Funding Number(s)
WBS: 244904.04.11.01.46
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
Technical Review
NASA Peer Committee
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