Related papers: Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer
The analysis of the properties of the X-ray radiation emitted from geometrically thin accretion disks around black holes can be a powerful tool to test General Relativity in the strong field regime. This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art…
Spectroscopy of the broad iron iron with ASCA and BeppoSAX has up opened the innermost regions of accreting black hole systems to detailed study. In this contribution, I discuss how observations with future X-ray missions will extend these…
Thanks to high-resolution and non-dispersive spectrometers onboard future X-ray missions such as XRISM and Athena, we are finally poised to answer important questions about the formation and evolution of galaxies and large-scale structure.…
Supermassive black holes, with masses of 10^6 to more than 10^9 solar masses, are among the most spectacular objects in the Universe, and are laboratories for physics in extreme conditions. The primary goal of ARISE (Advanced Radio…
The Astro-E2 high resolution X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) is expected to provide a major enhancement in study of clusters of galaxies. Astro-E2 is the fifth Japanese X-ray astronomy observatory, which is scheduled for launch in early 2005. The…
Gamma-ray burst counterpart studies require small, prompt error boxes. Today, there are several missions which can provide them: BeppoSAX, the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer, and the 3rd Interplanetary Network. In the near future, HETE-II, a…
Large X-ray observatories such as Chandra and XMM-Newton have been delivering scientific breakthroughs in research fields as diverse as our Solar System, the astrophysics of stars, stellar explosions and compact objects, accreting…
The spectrum of the hard X-ray background records the history of accretion processes integrated over the cosmic time. Several observational and theoretical evidences indicate that a significant fraction of the energy density is obscured by…
The NeXT mission has been proposed to study high-energy non-thermal phenomena in the universe. The high-energy response of the super mirror will enable us to perform the first sensitive imaging observations up to 80 keV. The focal plane…
Extragalactic X-ray surveys are exceptionally powerful tools for studying the evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, by detecting large numbers of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and star-forming galaxies over a wide…
This is a White Paper in support of the mission concept of the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT), proposed as a medium-sized ESA mission. We discuss the potential of LOFT for the study of radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei. For a…
The Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission is a space mission to be launched in the late 2020s that is currently in development led by China in international collaboration with European partners. Here we provide a progress…
The High Energy X-ray Probe is a proposed NASA probe-class mission that combines the power of high angular resolution with a broad X-ray bandpass to provide the necessary leap in capabilities to address the important astrophysical questions…
X-ray observations of star-planet systems are important to grow our understanding of exoplanets; these observation allow for studies of photoevaporation of the exoplanetary atmosphere, and in some cases even estimations of the size of the…
The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is an ambitious survey to measure the radial velocities, temperatures, surface gravities, metallicities and abundance ratios for up to a million stars using the 1.2-m UK Schmidt Telescope of the…
Einstein's theory of General Relativity was proposed over 100 years ago and has successfully passed a large number of observational tests in weak gravitational fields. On the contrary, the strong field regime is still largely unexplored.…
The most powerful cosmic engines in our universe are fueled by compact objects. These objects accrete large amounts of material and eject matter in the form of jets. Recent groundbreaking discoveries of gravitational waves from merging…
Due to be launched in late 2021, the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA Small Explorer mission designed to perform polarization measurements in the 2-8 keV band, complemented with imaging, spectroscopy and timing…
Most X-ray novae (aka soft X-ray transients) contain black hole primaries. In particular, the large mass functions measured for six X-ray novae directly clinch the argument (within general relativity) that they contain black holes. These…
The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is designed to i) use the birth of stellar mass black holes, as revealed by cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), as probes of the very first stars and galaxies to exist in the Universe. Both…