* Astronomy

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RE: ASTRO-H Mission

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Title: The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory
Authors: Tadayuki Takahashi, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Richard Kelley, Henri AartsFelix Aharonian, Hiroki Akamatsu, Fumie Akimoto, Steve Allen, Naohisa Anabuki, Lorella Angelini, Keith Arnaud, Makoto Asai, Marc Audard, Hisamitsu Awaki, Philipp Azzarello, Chris Baluta, Aya Bamba, Nobutaka Bando, Mark Bautz, Roger Blandford, Kevin Boyce, Greg Brown, Ed Cackett, Maria Chernyakova, Paolo Coppi, Elisa Costantini, Jelle de Plaa, Jan-Willem den Herder, Michael DiPirro, Chris Done, Tadayasu Dotani, John Doty, Ken Ebisawa, Megan Eckart, Teruaki Enoto, Yuichiro Ezoe, Andrew Fabian, Carlo Ferrigno, Adam Foster, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yasushi Fukazawa, Stefan Funk, Akihiro Furuzawa, Massimiliano Galeazzi, Luigi Gallo, Poshak Gandhi, Keith Gendreau, Kirk Gilmore, Daniel Haas, Yoshîto Haba, Kenji Hamaguchi, Isamu Hatsukade, et al. (172 additional authors not shown)

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.

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Astro-H agreement signed with JAXA

An agreement was signed by ESA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for cooperation on Astro-H, an important mission that will provide a unique opportunity for probing extreme phenomena in the Universe.
Astro-H will study astrophysical objects including black holes and neutron stars, explore the non-thermal Universe, and investigate the large-scale structure of the Universe and its evolution.
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Title: The ASTRO-H Mission
Authors: Tadayuki Takahashi, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Richard Kelley, Felix Aharonian, Fumie Akimoto, Steve Allen, Naohisa Anabuki, Lorella Angelini, Keith Arnaud, Hisamitsu Awaki, Aya Bamba, Nobutaka Bando, Mark Bautz, Roger Blandford, Kevin Boyce, Greg Brown, Maria Chernyakova, Paolo Coppi, Elisa Costantini, Jean Cottam, John Crow, Jelle de Plaa, Cor de Vries, Jan-Willem den Herder, Michael DiPirro, Chris Done, Tadayasu Dotani, Ken Ebisawa, Teruaki Enoto, Yuichiro Ezoe, Andrew Fabian, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yasushi Fukazawa, Stefan Funk, Akihiro Furuzawa, Massimiliano Galeazzi, Poshak Gandhi, Keith Gendreau, Kirk Gilmore, Yo****o Haba, Kenji Hamaguchi, Isamu Hatsukade, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Junko Hiraga, Kazuyuki Hirose, Ann Hornschemeier, John Hughes, Una Hwang, Ryo Iizuka, Kazunori Ishibashi, Manabu Ishida, Kosei Ishimura, Yo****aka Ishisaki, Naoki Isobe, Masayuki Ito, Naoko Iwata, Jelle Kaastra, Timothy Kallman, Tuneyoshi Kamae, Hideaki Katagiri, Jun Kataoka, Satoru Katsuda, Madoka Kawaharada, Nobuyuki Kawai, Shigeo Kawasaki, Dmitry Khangaluyan, Caroline Kilbourne, Kenzo Kinugasa, Shunji Kitamoto, Tetsu Kitayama, Takayoshi Kohmura, Motohide Kokubun, Tatsuro Kosaka, Taro Kotani, Katsuji Koyama, Aya Kubota, Hideyo Kunieda, Philippe Laurent, Francois Lebrun, Olivier Limousin, Michael Loewenstein, Knox Long, Grzegorz Madejski, Yo****omo Maeda, Kazuo Makishima, Maxim Markevitch, Hironori Matsumoto, Kyoko Matsu****a, Dan McCammon, Jon Miller, Shin Mineshige, Kenji Minesugi, Takuya Miyazawa, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Koji Mori, Hideyuki Mori, Koji Mukai, Hiroshi Murakami, Toshio Murakami, Richard Mushotzky, Yujin Nakagawa, Takao Nakagawa, Hiroshi Nakajima, Takeshi Nakamori, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Yoshiharu Namba, Masaharu Nomachi, Steve O' Dell, Hiroyuki Ogawa, Mina Ogawa, Keiji Ogi, Takaya Ohashi, Masanori Ohno, Masayuki Ohta, Takashi Okajima, Naomi Ota, Masanobu Ozaki, Frits Paerels, Stéphane Paltani, Arvind Parmer, Robert Petre, Martin Pohl, Scott Porter, Brian Ramsey, Christopher Reynolds, Shin-ichiro Sakai, Rita Sambruna, Goro Sato, Yoichi Sato, Peter Serlemitsos, Maki Shida, Takanobu Shimada, Keisuke Shinozaki, Peter Shirron, Randall Smith, Gary Sneiderman, Yang Soong, Lukasz Stawarz, Hiroyuki Sugita, Andrew Szymkowiak, Hiroyasu Tajima, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Yoh Takei, Toru Tamagawa, Takayuki Tamura, Keisuke Tamura, Takaaki Tanaka, Yasuo Tanaka, Yasuyuki Tanaka, Makoto Tashiro, Yuzuru Tawara, Yukikatsu Terada, Yuichi Terashima, Francesco Tombesi, Hiroshi Tomida, Miyako Tozuka, Yoko Tsuboi, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Takeshi Tsuru, Hiroyuki Uchida, Yasunobu Uchiyama, Hideki Uchiyama, Yoshihiro Ueda, Shinichiro Uno, Meg Urry, Shin Watanabe, Nicholas White, Takahiro Yamada, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Noriko Yamasaki, Makoto Yamauchi, Shigeo Yamauchi, Yoichi Yatsu, Daisuke Yonetoku, Atsumasa Yoshida
et al. (126 additional authors not shown)

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe by performing high-resolution, high-throughput spectroscopy with moderate angular resolution. ASTRO-H covers very wide energy range from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. ASTRO-H allows a combination of wide band X-ray spectroscopy (5-80 keV) provided by multilayer coating, focusing hard X-ray mirrors and hard X-ray imaging detectors, and high energy-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy (0.3-12 keV) provided by thin-foil X-ray optics and a micro-calorimeter array. The mission will also carry an X-ray CCD camera as a focal plane detector for a soft X-ray telescope (0.4-12 keV) and a non-focusing soft gamma-ray detector (40-600 keV) . The micro-calorimeter system is developed by an international collaboration led by ISAS/JAXA and NASA. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution of Delta E ~7 eV provided by the micro-calorimeter will enable a wide variety of important science themes to be pursued.

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