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S.S. Holt (NASA's GSFC)
Astro-E is Japan's fifth X-ray Astronomy mission scheduled to be launched in February 2000. It is being developed at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in collaboration with US (NASA/GSFC, MIT) and Japanese institutions. Astro-E will cover the energy range 0.4 - 700 keV. The instrument compliment includes the X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) that was originally selected to fly on AXAF. This advanced technology micro-calorimeter array at the focus of high throughput optics will provide a unique high resolution (12 eV) spectro-imaging capability that will probe hot thermal plasmas found in nearby stars to distant clusters of Galaxies. CCDs and a hard X-ray detector complete a very powerful instrument compliment. The US astronomical community will be invited to participate in the Astro-E mission via a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) to be released in March 1999. This special half day session will provide detailed information about the Astro-E capabilities and opportunities for the US astronomical community participation.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: steve.holt@gsfc.nasa.gov