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Session 71 - Space Astronomy in the Next Millennium.
Display session, Wednesday, January 17
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
We are studying a Next Generation X-ray Observatory, NGXO, that will provide a high resolution spectral capability with large collecting area, at a relatively low cost. The mission consists of two co-aligned telescope systems that provide coverage from 0.3--60 keV. One is optimized to cover the 0.3--12 keV band with 2 eV spectral resolution using an array of quantum calorimeters with a peak effective area of >2,000 cm^2. The spectral resolution will be five times better than the calorimeter planned for Astro-E, with more than a ten-fold increase in effective area over previous high resolution X-ray spectroscopy missions. The second telescope will be the first focusing optics to operate in the 10--60 keV energy range, and will have arc minute angular resolution with 500 cm^2 collecting area at 30 keV. The sensitivities of the two telescopes are matched to make possible many thousands of high quality X-ray spectral observations, from an available population of more than one million galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources. The NGXO mission is capable of addressing new astrophysical problems which include: determining the mass of a black hole, neutron star or white dwarf in binary systems from X-ray line radial velocity measurements; determining the 0.3--60 keV X-ray spectrum from AGN and determining their contribution to the X-ray background in this energy band; measuring Compton reflection spectra from cold material in accretion driven systems; determining the Hubble constant using resonant line absorption of QSO spectra by rich clusters; searching for a hot 10 million degree intergalactic medium; mapping the dynamics of the intracluster medium; mapping the ionization state, abundance and emission from supernova remnants on a 15 arc second angular scale; and measuring mass motion in stellar flares and the dynamics of accretion flows.
