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'ASTRO-E' and 'ASTRO-EII' (or 'Astro-E2') are Japanese X-ray astronomy satellites built primarily by JAXA. In 2000 the Astro-E launch failed (with the satellite falling into the ocean), so a replacement called Astro-EII was launched on July 10, 2005. Astro-EII has high spectroscopic resolution together with a very wide energy band, ranging from soft X-rays up to gamma-rays (0.3--600 keV). High resolution spectroscopy and wide-band are essential factors to physically investigate high energy astronomical phenomena, such as black holes and supernovae. One such feature, the broad Iron K line, may be key to more direct imaging of black holes. After a successful launch, ASTRO-EII was nicknamed 'Suzaku' which means "red bird of the south."
The spacecraft functioned flawlessly until July 29, 2005 when the first of many occurrences of a mysterious vacuum system malfunction occurred. On August 8, 2005 this malfunction caused the entire liquid helium to boil off into space. This effectively shut down the XRS which is the spacecrafts primary instrument. The two other instruments, XIS and HXD, are unaffected by this malfunction. It is planned to integrate the XRS into the proposed NeXT x-ray observation satellite planned for launch in 2012. [1]

Contents

ASTRO-E2 Instruments

External links

ASTRO-E2 Instruments

★ X-ray Spectrometer (XRS)

★ X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS)

★ Hard X-ray Detector (HXD)

External links

★ JAXA Suzaku (Astro-EII) mission description

★ JAXA/ISAS Suzaku (Astro-EII) mission overview

★ JAXA/ISAS Suzaku Information for Researchers

★ JAXA report presentation of failure analysis of XRS (in Japanese)

★ Astronomy Picture of the Day: Launch of the Red Bird

★ NASA Astro-E2 mission description

★ NASA/GSFC Suzaku Learning Center

★ NASA/GSFC XRS-2 project page