Jacques van Oene
July 12th 05, 08:34 PM
Dolores Beasley/Marta Metelko
Headquarters, Washington July 12, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-175/1642)
Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-7745)
RELEASE: 05-181
NASA TELESCOPE LAUNCHED ON JAPANESE SPACE OBSERVATORY
A pioneering X-ray detector, developed jointly by NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and the Institute of Space and Astronautical
Science (ISAS) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was
successfully launched on a major new space observatory.
The high-resolution X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) was launched on board the
Suzaku space observatory at 11:30 p.m. EDT, July 9 (12:30 p.m., July 10
local time) from Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan.
The highly anticipated Suzaku mission complements NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton mission. The
observatories support the study of exotic objects and regions in space that
radiate predominantly in X-rays. Suzaku is a mythical, divine bird
symbolizing renewal. It was previously called Astro-E2.
Key targets for Suzaku include black holes; the million-degree gas from star
explosions, which is filled with newly created elements such as oxygen and
calcium; and the optically invisible gas between stars and galaxies, which
comprises most of the ordinary mass in the universe.
"Suzaku will fill a vital gap in our understanding of the X-ray universe,"
said Goddard's Dr. Richard Kelley, principal investigator for the U.S.
contribution.
Along with the XRS on Suzaku are four X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS)
instruments developed in collaboration among Japanese institutions and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Hard X-Ray Detector (HXD), built
by the University of Tokyo, ISAS and other Japanese institutions is also on
board.
The XRS and XIS instruments will analyze X-ray photons focused by individual
telescopes. They were built at Goddard by a team led by Dr. Peter
Serlemitsos, in cooperation with Nagoya University and other institutions in
Japan. The HXD uses a tested yet improved technology.
Suzaku launched on an M-V rocket and will attain a near-Earth, circular
orbit at approximately 560 kilometers (345 miles). The observatory's
expected mission lifetime is five years. Suzaku is the fifth in a series of
Japanese satellites devoted to studying celestial X-ray sources.
For more information about Suzaku on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/astro-e2
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/astro-e2/
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
Headquarters, Washington July 12, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-175/1642)
Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-7745)
RELEASE: 05-181
NASA TELESCOPE LAUNCHED ON JAPANESE SPACE OBSERVATORY
A pioneering X-ray detector, developed jointly by NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and the Institute of Space and Astronautical
Science (ISAS) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was
successfully launched on a major new space observatory.
The high-resolution X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) was launched on board the
Suzaku space observatory at 11:30 p.m. EDT, July 9 (12:30 p.m., July 10
local time) from Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan.
The highly anticipated Suzaku mission complements NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton mission. The
observatories support the study of exotic objects and regions in space that
radiate predominantly in X-rays. Suzaku is a mythical, divine bird
symbolizing renewal. It was previously called Astro-E2.
Key targets for Suzaku include black holes; the million-degree gas from star
explosions, which is filled with newly created elements such as oxygen and
calcium; and the optically invisible gas between stars and galaxies, which
comprises most of the ordinary mass in the universe.
"Suzaku will fill a vital gap in our understanding of the X-ray universe,"
said Goddard's Dr. Richard Kelley, principal investigator for the U.S.
contribution.
Along with the XRS on Suzaku are four X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS)
instruments developed in collaboration among Japanese institutions and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Hard X-Ray Detector (HXD), built
by the University of Tokyo, ISAS and other Japanese institutions is also on
board.
The XRS and XIS instruments will analyze X-ray photons focused by individual
telescopes. They were built at Goddard by a team led by Dr. Peter
Serlemitsos, in cooperation with Nagoya University and other institutions in
Japan. The HXD uses a tested yet improved technology.
Suzaku launched on an M-V rocket and will attain a near-Earth, circular
orbit at approximately 560 kilometers (345 miles). The observatory's
expected mission lifetime is five years. Suzaku is the fifth in a series of
Japanese satellites devoted to studying celestial X-ray sources.
For more information about Suzaku on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/astro-e2
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/astro-e2/
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info