TY - GEN
T1 - High-resolution x-ray telescopes
AU - O'Dell, Stephen L.
AU - Brissenden, Roger J.
AU - Davis, William N.
AU - Elsner, Ronald F.
AU - Elvis, Martin S.
AU - Freeman, Mark D.
AU - Gaetz, Terrance
AU - Gorenstein, Paul
AU - Gubarev, Mikhail V.
AU - Jerius, Diab
AU - Juda, Michael
AU - Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.
AU - Murray, Stephen S.
AU - Petre, Robert
AU - Podgorski, William
AU - Ramsey, Brian D.
AU - Reid, Paul B.
AU - Saha, Timo
AU - Schwartz, Daniel A.
AU - Trolier-McKinstry, Susan
AU - Weisskopf, Martin C.
AU - Wilke, Rudeger H.T.
AU - Wolk, Scott
AU - Zhang, William W.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - High-energy astrophysics is a relatively young scientific field, made possible by space-borne telescopes. During the half-century history of x-ray astronomy, the sensitivity of focusing x-ray telescopes - through finer angular resolution and increased effective area - has improved by a factor of a 100 million. This technological advance has enabled numerous exciting discoveries and increasingly detailed study of the high-energy universe - including accreting (stellarmass and super-massive) black holes, accreting and isolated neutron stars, pulsar-wind nebulae, shocked plasma in supernova remnants, and hot thermal plasma in clusters of galaxies. As the largest structures in the universe, galaxy clusters constitute a unique laboratory for measuring the gravitational effects of dark matter and of dark energy. Here, we review the history of high-resolution x-ray telescopes and highlight some of the scientific results enabled by these telescopes. Next, we describe the planned next-generation x-ray-astronomy facility - the International X-ray Observatory (IXO). We conclude with an overview of a concept for the next next-generation facility - Generation X. The scientific objectives of such a mission will require very large areas (about 10000 m2) of highly-nested lightweight grazing-incidence mirrors with exceptional (about 0.1-arcsecond) angular resolution. Achieving this angular resolution with lightweight mirrors will likely require on-orbit adjustment of alignment and figure.
AB - High-energy astrophysics is a relatively young scientific field, made possible by space-borne telescopes. During the half-century history of x-ray astronomy, the sensitivity of focusing x-ray telescopes - through finer angular resolution and increased effective area - has improved by a factor of a 100 million. This technological advance has enabled numerous exciting discoveries and increasingly detailed study of the high-energy universe - including accreting (stellarmass and super-massive) black holes, accreting and isolated neutron stars, pulsar-wind nebulae, shocked plasma in supernova remnants, and hot thermal plasma in clusters of galaxies. As the largest structures in the universe, galaxy clusters constitute a unique laboratory for measuring the gravitational effects of dark matter and of dark energy. Here, we review the history of high-resolution x-ray telescopes and highlight some of the scientific results enabled by these telescopes. Next, we describe the planned next-generation x-ray-astronomy facility - the International X-ray Observatory (IXO). We conclude with an overview of a concept for the next next-generation facility - Generation X. The scientific objectives of such a mission will require very large areas (about 10000 m2) of highly-nested lightweight grazing-incidence mirrors with exceptional (about 0.1-arcsecond) angular resolution. Achieving this angular resolution with lightweight mirrors will likely require on-orbit adjustment of alignment and figure.
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U2 - 10.1117/12.862315
DO - 10.1117/12.862315
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:78549259679
SN - 9780819482990
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Adaptive X-Ray Optics
T2 - Adaptive X-Ray Optics
Y2 - 3 August 2010 through 5 August 2010
ER -