Launch of X-ray Astronomical Satellite ASTRO-H (2016/1/26)

The 6th Japanese X-ray astronomical satellite ASTRO-H will be launched on February 12, 2016 from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC) by the H-IIA launch vehicle F-30. ASTRO-H is constructed by all the Japanese institutes related to the X-ray astrophysics including RIKEN in collaboration with US and Europe. The total mass of the satellite is 2.7 ton and the length is 14 m after deploying the optical boom. ASTRO-H carries four X-ray and gamma-ray detectors covering the 0.3-600 keV energy range.

Tamagawa High Energy Astrophysics Laboratory, in collaboration with JAXA, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Kanazawa University, Saitama University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center etc., is contributing to the soft X-ray spectrometer (SXS), which achieves unprecedented energy resolution (< 7 eV) in the 0.3-12 keV energy band with a low-temperature micro calorimeter. The staffs are busy at TNSC for preparing the launch.

Thanks to the ASTRO-H’s excellent spectroscopic ability, we expect enormous progress in the studies of nucleosynthesis in the universe and the nuclear matter of neutron stars, which are strongly connected to the accelerator-based sciences performed at Nishina Center.

Stay tuned for ASTRO-H!

countdown:
http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/astro_h/
website:
http://astro-h.isas.jaxa.jp/en/