EXIST: A High Sensitivity Hard X-ray Imaging Sky Survey Mission for ISS
Abstract
A deep all-sky imaging hard x-ray survey and wide-field monitor is needed to extend soft (ROSAT) and medium (ABRIXAS2) x-ray surveys into the 10-100 keV band (and beyond) at comparable sensitivity (~0.05 mCrab). This would enable discovery and study of >3000 obscured AGN, which probably dominate the hard x-ray background; detailed study of spectra and variability of accreting black holes and a census of BHs in the Galaxy; Gamma-ray bursts and associated massive star formation (PopIII) at very high redshift and Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters throughout the Local Group; and a full galactic survey for obscured supernova remnants. The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is a proposed array of 8 x 1m^2 coded aperture telescopes fixed on the International Space Station (ISS) with 160deg x 40deg field of view which images the full sky each 90 min orbit. EXIST has been included in the most recent NASA Strategic Plan as a candidate mission for the next decade. An overview of the science goals and mission concept is presented.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9912394,
title = {EXIST: A High Sensitivity Hard X-ray Imaging Sky Survey Mission for ISS},
author = {J. Grindlay and L. Bildsten and D. Chakrabarty and M. Elvis and A. Fabian and F. Fiore and N. Gehrels and C. Hailey and F. Harrison and D. Hartmann and T. Prince and B. Ramsey and R. Rothschild and G. Skinner and S. Woosley},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9912394},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages LaTeX. To appear in Proc. 5th Compton Symp. (M. McConnell, ed.; AIP Conf. Proc.)