MISSIONS

X-ray Astronomy Satellite "ASTRO-H"

Under Development

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October 28, 2009 Updated

SRON-JAXA agreement on Space Science

On October 28th, 2009, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and JAXA signed a cooperative framework agreement with the aim of promoting joint activities in the field of space science in the presence of Dr. De Heer, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdome of the Netherlands to Japan, and Dr. Tachikawa, the President of JAXA.
On the same day, the Implementing Arrangement for collaboration on ASTRO-H (International X-ray astronomy mission) was also concluded. Through ASTRO-H mission, SRON will be in charge of developing an onboard instrument "Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS)" and take part in a science team to carry our scientific research.

Mission talk by team leaders

Here are messages from Project Managers.
To read the messages, click here.


Project Manager

Overview

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New space image to be elucidated by X-ray astronomy

(Courtesy of Akihiro Ikeshita)

In the mid-20th century, we became able to observe space through the light of some wave lengths other than visible light through human eyes. Those invisible wave length lights include radio waves, infrared lights, and X rays. As a result, we found that various phenomena were occurring in space where we had believed nothing existed as we had not been able to observe stars until that time. The X ray is a light with a wave length emitted from the extremely high-temperature region of several million to several hundred million degrees Celsius. In such a region, a supernova explosion, black hole, active galactic nucleus, high-temperature plasma between galaxies and other such kinds of phenomena gravely affect star generation and large space structures and their development such as clusters of galaxies. Actually, such a region is not unusual for us. Rather, it is said that 90 percent of general elements on the periodic table that are visible to us, such as a baryon, can be observed only by X ray.

However X rays seldom reach the Earth's surface as they are obstructed by the atmosphere. Japan has been playing a leading role in the field of X-ray astronomy since the dawn of this field by launching satellites namely "HAKUCHO" (CORSA-b), "TENMA" (ASTRO-B), "GINGA" (ASTRO-C), "ASUKA" (ASTRO-D), and "SUZAKU" (ASTRO-EII), which is currently in operation. The ASTRO-H is the sixth X-ray astronomy satellite following these predecessors.


Scientific objectives of ASTRO-H

ASTRO-H enables high sensitivity observations of celestial sources across a wide energy range, from X-rays to gamma-rays, bands presenting considerable technical challenges. Thesatellite features cutting-edge instruments; SXS, operated at only 50 mK, is capable of measuring, with unprecedented accuracy, the energy of incoming X-rays. It measures temperature changes in a sensor resulting from absorption of X-ray photons. HXI, operating in the focusing of a Hard X-ray Telescope, will produce the first ever images of the high-energy X-ray universe. SXI, featuring domestically produced X-ray CCDs, will enable us to make wide field X-ray images of the sky with ultra-low noise. The narrowview semi-conductor Compton camera, SGD, revitalizes the field of gamma-ray observations by featuring the greatest sensitivity in this band. The Japanese heritage of successful previous satellites will provide a basis for meeting these challenges.