The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

Abstract

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly\nsuccessful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical\nScience (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy\nuniverse via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range,\nfrom 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution,\nhigh-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral\nresolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in\nthe focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers\ncovering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing\nhard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12\nkeV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and\na non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the\n40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral\nresolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science\nthemes.\n