Related papers: The Soft X-ray Imager on board EXIST

FORCE is a Japan-US space-based astronomy mission for an X-ray imaging spectroscopy in an energy range of 1--80 keV. The Wideband Hybrid X-ray Imager (WHXI), which is the main focal plane detector, will use a hybrid semiconductor imager…

eROSITA is the primary instrument on the Russian SRG mission. In the first four years of scientific operation after its launch, foreseen for 2014, it will perform a deep survey of the entire X-ray sky. In the soft X-ray band (0.5-2 keV),…

(Abridged) Since its launch in October 2002, the INTEGRAL satellite has revolutionized our knowledge of the hard X-ray sky thanks to its unprecedented imaging capabilities and source detection positional accuracy above 20 keV. Nevertheless,…

X-rays are a powerful probe of the physical conditions in the nuclei of active galaxies. We review the X-ray properties of radio-quiet AGN, LINERs and ultraluminous IR galaxies based on observations carried out with the X-ray satellite…

The nature and origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) remain an open matter of debate within the scientific community. While various theoretical scenarios have been proposed, each with specific observational signatures, the lack of…

To take advantage of the astrophysical potential of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), Chinese and French astrophysicists have engaged the SVOM mission (Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor). Major advances in GRB studies…

After more than 5.5 years of in flight lifetime, the ESA space observatory INTEGRAL is depicting a new scenario in the soft gamma Ray domain. With the observation and discovery of more than 400 hard X-Ray sources has changed our view of a…

ECLAIRs is a French microsatellite devoted to the observation of the prompt optical and X-ray emission of GRBs. For about 100 GRBs/yr, independent of their duration, ECLAIRs will provide high time resolution high sensitivity spectral…

Hard X-ray observations are the most efficient way to discriminate accretion-powered sources from star-light. Furthermore, hard X-rays are less affected than other bands by obscuration. For these reasons the advent of imaging instruments…

Axions are a promising dark matter candidate as well as a solution to the strong charge-parity (CP) problem in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). We describe a new mission concept for SmallSat Solar Axion and Activity X-ray Imager (SSAXI) to…

We present the Swift X-ray Cluster Survey (SWXCS) catalog obtained using archival data from the X-ray telescope (XRT) on board the Swift satellite acquired from 2005 to 2012, extending the first release of the SWXCS. The catalog provides…

The INTEGRAL SPI instrument observes the hard X-ray sky from 20 keV up to a few MeV since more than 15 years. In this energy domain, the main emitters are compact objects for which SPI provides spectral information of prime interest.…

We first present a short overview of X-ray probes of the black hole region of active galaxies (AGN) and then concentrate on the X-ray search for supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in optically non-active galaxies. The first part focuses on…

A long standing goal in astrophysics is to directly observe the immediate environment of a black hole with angular resolution comparable to the event horizon. Realizing this goal would open a new window on the study of General Relativity in…

The Resolve soft X-ray spectrometer is the high spectral resolution microcalorimeter spectrometer for the XRISM mission. In the beam of Resolve there is a filter wheel containing \xray{} filters. In the beam also is an active calibration…

(abridged) Hard X-ray surveys performed by the INTEGRAL satellite have discovered a conspicuous fraction (up to 30%) of unidentified objects among the detected sources. Here we continue our identification program by selecting probable…

The NaI and BGO detectors on the Gamma ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi are now being used for long term monitoring of the hard X-ray/low energy gamma ray sky. Using the Earth occultation technique demonstrated previously by the BATSE…

Based on spectral simulations, I show how focusing of the X-ray radiations above 10 keV will open a new window for the study of microquasars. With simulations of soft and hard state spectra of Galactic sources, I discuss how SIMBOL-X can…

The Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory continues to operate successfully in orbit at the Lagrange point L2. The Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope has demonstrated high efficiency in conducting X-ray surveys both over large sky…

We present the Near-Ultraviolet eXplorer (NUX), which will consist out of 4 small (36 cm diameter) ground-based telescopes that are optimized for the shortest wavelengths that are detectable from Earth (i.e., the near-UV [NUV] wavelength…