The NeXT Mission

The NeXT (New exploration X-ray Telescope), the new Japanese X-ray Astronomy Satellite following Suzaku, is an international X-ray mission which is currently planed for launch in 2013. NeXT is a combination of wide band X-ray spectroscopy (3-80 keV) provided by multi-layer coating, focusing hard X-ray mirrors and hard X-ray imaging detectors, and high energy-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy (0.3-10 keV) provided by thin-foil X-ray optics and a micro-calorimeter array. The mission will also carry an X-ray CCD camera as a focal plane detector for a soft X-ray telescope and a non-focusing soft gamma-ray detector. With these instruments, NeXT covers very wide energy range from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. The micro-calorimeter system will be developed by international collaboration lead by ISAS/JAXA and NASA. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution of ΔE ~7 eV by the micro-calorimeter will enable a wide variety of important science themes to be pursued.

[1]  Tadayuki Takahashi,et al.  The NeXT mission , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[2]  Ryuichi Fujimoto,et al.  The x-ray microcalorimeter on the NeXT mission , 2008, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[3]  Yoshiharu Namba,et al.  The NeXT x-ray telescope system: status update , 2008, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[4]  Marshall W. Bautz,et al.  The SXI: CCD camera onboard the NeXT mission , 2008, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[5]  S. Molendi,et al.  HARD X-RAY RADIATION IN THE COMA CLUSTER SPECTRUM , 1999 .

[6]  Tadayuki Takahashi,et al.  Hard x-ray imager for the NeXT mission , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[7]  Aleksey E. Bolotnikov,et al.  Development of the High-Energy Focusing Telescope (HEFT) balloon experiment , 2000, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[8]  Matt,et al.  Hard X-Ray Emission from the Galaxy Cluster A2256. , 2000, The Astrophysical journal.

[9]  Tadayuki Takahashi,et al.  Wide band X-ray Imager (WXI) and Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) for the NeXT Mission , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[10]  T. Oosterbroek,et al.  Nonthermal Hard X-Ray Emission in Galaxy Clusters Observed with the BeppoSAX PDS , 2004 .

[11]  Emi Miyata,et al.  Soft x-ray imager (SXI) onboard the NeXT satellite , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[12]  Felix A. Aharonian,et al.  Extremely fast acceleration of cosmic rays in a supernova remnant , 2007, Nature.

[13]  Richard Mushotzky,et al.  Revealing the High Energy Emission from the Obscured Seyfert Galaxy MCG−5–23–16 with Suzaku , 2006, astro-ph/0610434.

[14]  Tadayuki Takahashi,et al.  Gamma-ray polarimetry with Compton Telescope , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[15]  Takamitsu Miyaji,et al.  Cosmological Evolution of the Hard X-Ray Active Galactic Nucleus Luminosity Function and the Origin of the Hard X-Ray Background , 2003, astro-ph/0308140.

[16]  Hajime Inoue,et al.  Astro-E2 mission , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[17]  Tadayuki Takahashi,et al.  High resolution CdTe detectors for the next-generation multi-Compton gamma-ray telescope , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[18]  Felix Aharonian,et al.  Very High Energy Cosmic Gamma Radiation: A Crucial Window on the Extreme Universe , 2004 .

[19]  R. Petre,et al.  Evidence for shock acceleration of high-energy electrons in the supernova remnant SN1006 , 1995, Nature.

[20]  Tuneyoshi Kamae,et al.  Future Hard X-ray and Gamma-ray Observations , 2001 .

[21]  Adam Mantz,et al.  The prospects for constraining dark energy with future X-ray cluster gas mass fraction measurements , 2007, 0710.0440.

[22]  Richard L. Kelley.  X-ray microcalorimeters for Astro-E2 and high-energy astrophysics , 2006 .

[23]  Verne L. Jacobs,et al.  High-Resolution Measurement of the Kα Spectrum of Fe XXV-XVIII: New Spectral Diagnostics of Nonequilibrium Astrophysical Plasmas , 1997 .

[24]  H. Kunieda,et al.  Gravitationally redshifted emission implying an accretion disk and massive black hole in the active galaxy MCG–6–30–15 , 1995, Nature.

[25]  Hideyo Kunieda.  Balloon-borne hard x-ray imaging observations of non-thermal phenomena , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[26]  Tadayuki Takahashi,et al.  Hard X-ray imager (HXI) for the NeXT mission , 2008, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[27]  M. Galeazzi,et al.  Ion-Implanted Silicon X-Ray Calorimeters: Present and Future , 2008 .