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Hitomi (ASTRO-H) X-ray Astronomy Satellite

2018; SPIE; Volume: 4; Issue: 02 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/1.jatis.4.2.021402

2329-4221

Tadayuki Takahashi, Motohide Kokubun, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Richard L. Kelley, Takaya Ohashi, F. Aharonian, Hiroki Akamatsu, Fumie Akimoto, S. W. Allen, Naohisa Anabuki, L. Angelini, Keith A. Arnaud, Makoto Asai, M. Audard, Hisamitsu Awaki, M. Axelsson, P. Azzarello, Chris Baluta, Aya Bamba, Nobutaka Bando, M. W. Bautz, Thomas G. Bialas, R. D. Blandford, K. R. Boyce, Laura Brenneman, G. V. Brown, Esra Bülbül, Edward Cackett, Edgar R. Canavan, M. Chernyakova,

Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research

The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E > 2 keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month.