Revolutionary x-ray sensor to probe workings of black holes and supernovae

The first one failed to reach orbit. The second died soon after getting to space, when its helium coolant was accidentally dumped. The third one lasted for 37 days before its spacecraft broke apart in a fatal spin. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is hoping the fourth time is the charm for a revolutionary x-ray instrument that will give astronomers unprecedented views of the hot gases around supernovae and black holes and within galaxy clusters. On 26 August, the agency plans to launch the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a telescope fitted with a NASA-developed device to do something that has long been a challenge for x-ray telescopes: Tease apart the x-rays’ wavelengths, the way a prism splits visible light. Detailed x-ray spectroscopy will allow researchers to not only see the hot gases, but also discover what they’re made of and how they’re moving. “It’s a completely new kind of detector,” says astrophysicist Poshak Gandhi of the University of Southampton. Because Earth’s atmosphere blocks x-rays, astronomers must go to space to see them. Even there, making x-ray images is a challenge. Because x-rays go straight through conventional mirrors, the photons must be gathered and focused by glancing reflections off nested cylindrical mirrors. X-ray telescopes using that approach can image the hot gases, which make up more than half the visible matter in the universe. But astronomers want more, Gandhi says. “We really need ...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news