Résumé / Abstract Seminaire_IAP
« The ESA/NASA/JAXA International X-ray Observatory »

Didier Barret
The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is a new X-ray telescope with joint participation from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The spacecraft configuration for the IXO study is a mission featuring a single large X-ray mirror and an extendible optical bench, with a focal length of 20 m, and a suite of 6 focal plane instruments. The instruments under study for the IXO concept include: a wide field X-ray imaging detector, a high-spectral-resolution imaging X-ray spectrometer (calorimeter), a hard X-ray imaging detector, an X-ray grating spectrometer, high timing resolution spectrometer, and an X-ray polarimeter. The IXO mission concept is being submitted to the U.S.
Decadal Process and ESA's Cosmic Vision Plan.
Thanks to its high-throughput, IXO will study the high-energy Universe through three main scientific themes: Black holes and matter under extreme conditions, the formation and evolution of galaxies, clusters, and large scale structure, and finally the life cycles of matter and energy. In this talk, I will describe the main scientific objectives of IXO, present the current mission concept, and finally emphasize on the science to be performed by the high time resolution spectrometer, forseen as the main French contribution to the mission.
vendredi 5 juin 2009 - 11:00
Salle des séminaires Évry Schatzman, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Page web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage