Athena: mission concept, study status, and optics development
Abstract
Athena is the L-class mission selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to address the theme of 'the Hot and energetic Universe' in the Cosmic Vision program. Officially selected for L2 with a launch date in 2028, Athena is currently in the study phase, to be proposed for 'adoption' around 2019/20. The Athena mission concept comprises two instruments: the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) a cryogenic imaging spectrometer covering the 0.3 to 10 keV energy range with unprecedented energy resolution; and the Wide Field Imager (WFI) covering the 0.1 to 12 keV energy range, based on a silicon active pixel sensor. It features a large field of view, excellent spatial and energy resolution and count rate capabilities up to the Crab regime. The 12-m focal length Athena mirror provides effective area (goal) of ≃2 m^2 at 1 keV, angular resolution of 5 arc seconds Half Energy Width at <7 keV, and field of view diameter >40 arc minutes. This combination is made possible by the Silicon Pore Optics technology developed by ESA and Cosine Measurement Systems over the last decade. In this talk I will review the mission concept, optics development, and study status.
- Publication:
-
The X-ray Universe 2017
- Pub Date:
- October 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017xru..conf...15G