Related papers: Hard-X-Ray Optics Development at Marshall Space Fl…
We describe development of hard x-ray focusing optics telescopes at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC).
We have developed X-ray telescope mirrors using an original electroforming replication technique established through the fabrication of millimeter-aperture, ultra-short-focal-length nanofocusing mirrors for synchrotron X-ray microscopy.…
The energy range of hard X-rays is a key waveband to the study of high energy processes in celestial objects, but still remains poorly explored. In contrast to direct imaging methods used in the low energy X-ray and high energy gamma-ray…
Astronomy is by nature a visual science. The high quality imagery produced by the world's observatories can be a key to effectively engaging with the public and helping to inspire the next generation of scientists. Creating compelling…
The universe provides numerous extremely interesting astrophysical sources of synchrotron X radiation. The Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray missions provide powerful probes of these and other cosmic X-ray sources. Chandra is the…
Future hard X-ray telescopes (e.g. SIMBOL-X and Constellation-X) will make use of hard X-ray optics with multilayer coatings, with angular resolutions comparable to the achieved ones in the soft X-rays. One of the crucial points in X-ray…
The history of X-ray astronomy has shown that any advancement in our knowledge of the X-ray sky is strictly related to an increase in instrument sensitivity. At energies above 60 keV, there are interesting prospects for greatly improving…
A number of hard X-Ray (10 - 100 KeV) astronomical missions of near future will make use of multilayer-coated focusing mirrors. The technology based on Nickel electroformed replication is suitable for the multilayer optics realization,…
X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD) has developed into a powerful technique for the structural analysis of solids. Extension of the technique into the hard-X-ray range (hXPD) gives access to true bulk information. Here we give a status…
Full-field x-ray microscopy using x-ray objectives has become a mainstay of the biological and materials sciences. However, the inefficiency of existing objectives at x-ray energies above 15 keV has limited the technique to weakly absorbing…
Grazing-incidence X-ray optics have revolutionized X-ray astrophysics. The ability to concentrate flux to a tiny detection region provides a dramatic reduction in background and a consequent very large improvement in sensitivity. The X-ray…
The Italian New Hard X-ray Mission (NHXM) has been designed to provide a real breakthrough on a number of hot astrophysical issues that includes: black holes census, the physics of accretion, the particle acceleration mechanisms, the…
Coded mask instruments have been used in high-energy astronomy for the last forty years now and designs for future hard X-ray/low gamma-ray telescopes are still based on this technique when they need to reach moderate angular resolutions…
Observations at high energies yield important information on the structure and nature of AGN; when coupled with deep optical and near-infrared (photometric and spectroscopic) follow-up, they provide constraints on the mass of the growing…
A number of exciting concepts are under development for Flagship, Probe class, Explorer class, and Suborbital class NASA missions in the ultraviolet/optical spectral ranges. These missions will depend on high performance silicon detector…
Neutron stars (NSs) powered by accretion, which are known as accretion-powered NSs, always locate in binary systems and manifest themselves as X-ray sources. Physical process during accreting material from their companions is a challenging…
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the X-ray component of NASA's Great Observatory Program which includes the recently launched Spitzer Infrared Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for observations in the visible, and the Compton…
Significant advances in science always take place when the state of the art in instrumentation improves dramatically. NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory represents such an advance. Launched in July of 1999, Chandra is an observatory designed…
This chapter describes the history, principles, and recent developments of large field of view X-ray optics based on lobster eye designs. Most of grazing incidence (reflective) X-ray imaging systems used in astronomy and other applications,…
The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) is a Chinese space telescope mission. It is scheduled for launch in 2015. The telescope will perform an all-sky survey in hard X-ray band (1 - 250 keV), a series of deep imaging observations of…