The Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer: A New Mission for X-Ray Timing
Abstract
The great success of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has given us a new probe to study strong gravitational fields and to measure the physical properties of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we describe a "next-generation" x-ray timing mission, the Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer (RAE), designed to fit within the envelope of a "medium-sized" mission. The main instruments will be a narrow-field x-ray detector array with an area of at least ten times that of RXTE, and a wide-field x-ray monitor with good sensitivity and few arcminute position resolution. We describe the design of the instruments and the science which will be possible with a factor of ten increase in collecting area.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9911209,
title = {The Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer: A New Mission for X-Ray Timing},
author = {P. Kaaret and J. Grindlay and F. K. Lamb and E. H. Morgan and J. H. Swank and W. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9911209},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 pages, submitted to proceedings for the "X-ray '99: Stellar Endpoints, AGN and the Diffuse Background" conference, Bologna, Italy Sep 6-10, 1999