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The Joint astrophysical Plasmadynamic EXperiment (J-PEX): A high-resolution rocket spectrometer

Astrophysics 2012-08-27 v1

Abstract

We report on the successful sounding rocket flight of the high resolution (R=3000-4000) J-PEX EUV spectrometer. J-PEX is a novel normal incidence instrument, which combines the focusing and dispersive elements of the spectrometer into a single optical element, a multilayer-coated grating. The high spectral resolution achieved has had to be matched by unprecedented high spatial resolution in the imaging microchannel plate detector used to record the data. We illustrate the performance of the complete instrument through an analysis of the 220-245A spectrum of the white dwarf G191-B2B obtained with a 300 second exposure. The high resolution allows us to detect a low-density ionized helium component along the line of sight to the star and individual absorption lines from heavier elements in the photosphere.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0209338,
  title  = {The Joint astrophysical Plasmadynamic EXperiment (J-PEX): A high-resolution rocket spectrometer},
  author = {M. A. Barstow and N. P. Bannister and R. G. Cruddace and M. P. Kowalski and K. S. Wood and D. J. Yentis and H. Gursky and T. W. Barbee, and W. H. Goldstein and J. F. Kordas and G. G. Fritz and J. L. Culhane and J. S. Lapingtone},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0209338},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

11 pages, including 9 figure and 2 tables. To be published in Proc SPIE, vol 4854

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