[Other -- Oral ]
The International X-ray Observatory
Randall Smith, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
for the IXO team
The International X-ray Observatory (IXO), a joint ESA-JAXA-NASA
effort, will address fundamental and timely questions in astrophysics:
What happens close to a black hole? How did supermassive black holes
grow? How does large scale structure form? What is the connection
between these processes? To address these questions IXO will trace
orbits close to the event horizon of black holes, measure black hole
spin for several hundred active galactic nuclei (AGN), use spectroscopy
to characterize outflows and the environment of AGN during their peak
activity, search for super-massive black holes out to redshift z = 10,
map bulk motions and turbulence in galaxy clusters, find the missing
baryons in the cosmic web using background quasars, and observe the
process of cosmic feedback where black holes inject energy on galactic
and intergalactic scales. IXO will employ optics with 3 sq m collecting
area and 5 arc sec angular resolution - 20 times more collecting area at
1 keV than any previous X-ray observatory. Focal plane instruments will
deliver a 100-fold increase in effective area for high-resolution
spectroscopy, deep spectral imaging over a wide field of view, deep
polarimetric sensitivity, microsecond spectroscopic timing, and high
count rate capability. The mission is being planned for launch in 2021
to an L2 orbit, with a five-year lifetime and consumables for 10 years.
Previous experience assures us that unexpected discoveries will abound —
a key feature of great observatories.