Athena+: The first Deep Universe X-ray Observatory
Abstract
The Advanced Telescope for High-energy Astrophysics (Athena+) is being proposed to ESA as the L2 mission (for a launch in 2028) and is specifically designed to answer two of the most pressing questions for astrophysics in the forthcoming decade: How did ordinary matter assemble into the large scale structures we see today? and how do black holes grow and shape the Universe? For addressing these two issues, Athena+ will provide transformational capabilities in terms of angular resolution, effective area, spectral resolution, grasp, that will make it the most powerful X-ray observatory ever flown. Such an observatory, when opened to the astronomical community, will be used for virtually all classes of astrophysical objects, from high-z gamma-ray bursts to the closest planets in our solar neighborhood. In this paper, we briefly review the core science objectives of Athena+, present the science requirements and the foreseen implementation of the mission, and illustrate its transformational capabilities compared to existing facilities.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1310.3814,
title = {Athena+: The first Deep Universe X-ray Observatory},
author = {D. Barret and K. Nandra and X. Barcons and A Fabian and J-W den Herder and L. Piro and M. Watson and J. Aird and G. Branduardi-Raymont and M. Cappi and F. Carrera and A. Comastri and E. Costantini and J. Croston and A. Decourchelle and C. Done and M. Dovciak and S. Ettori and A. Finoguenov and A. Georgakakis and P. Jonker and J. Kaastra and G. Matt and C. Motch and P. O'Brien and G. Pareschi and E. Pointecouteau and G. Pratt and G. Rauw and T. Reiprich and J. Sanders and S. Sciortino and R. Willingale and J. Wilms},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.3814},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of French Astronomical Society Meeting (SF2A-2013): L. Cambresy, F. Martins, E. Nuss and A. Palacios (eds). All information related to Athena+, including the full list of white paper contributors and Athena+ supporters (1178 as of today) can be found on the Athena+ web site: http://www.the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu