Prospects for the direct WHIM Detection by Athena
Abstract
We discuss constraints of the hot baryons content in the Universe studying the Warm/Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) soft X-ray emission. Chances for a detection of the thermal flux generated by the WWHIM using the WFI on board the ATHENA telescope are examined. Taking our earlier estimates of the Bremsstrahlung emission generated by a single WHIM halo surrounding a field galaxy (Soltan, 2006), the exposure time of ∼50 ks would be required to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of 1 in the energy band 0.3 - 0.5 keV. By stacking several such exposures the S/N > 3 is easily attainable.
- Publication:
-
Exploring the Hot and Energetic Universe: The first scientific conference dedicated to the Athena X-ray observatory
- Pub Date:
- September 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015eheu.conf...21S