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C.L. Joseph (Rutgers)
The Schwarzchild Kinematical Explorer (SKE) is a proposed midex mission with a telescope aperture that is larger than HST which will perform two large kinematical studies. Both studies will survey at least 200 galaxies in 2-dimensional spectrographic mode with a spatial resolution that is twice that of HST. The first survey will study the supermassive black holes in the cores of galaxies. The anisotropy of both the stellar and gas velocity distributions will not only constrain BH masses much better than current instruments, but will also provide constraints of BH formation processes. The second survey will study the evolution of galaxy spiral arms as a function of look back time going back to early star burst phases. There are other science objectives and a fraction of the telescope time will be given to a guest investigator program. The instrument design and mission will be described.