ABRIXAS, an Imaging Telescope for an X-ray All-Sky Survey in the 0.5-10 keV Band

General Information

The Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam (AIP), the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), and the Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik Tübingen (IAAT) are planning the small X-ray satellite mission ABRIXAS (A Broad-band Imaging X-ray All-sky Survey), extending the ROSAT survey to the harder X-ray band (0.5-10 keV) with an angular resolution better than 1 arcmin. As a pathfinder mission, ideally before the big missions XMM and AXAF, it can pinpoint objects obscured for soft X-rays by absorbing gas and dust.

One main goal of the project is to study the absorbed AGN population and its contribution to the X-ray background. It is expected to detect 10,000-20,000 new AGN. However, ABRIXAS will also obtain high-quality spectra of diffuse emission objects like clusters and supernova remnants. Additionally, the three-year survey will provide monitoring of bright X-ray sources on timescales not yet explored.

The project is managed by the German Aerospace Center Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR). The main industry contractor is OHB-System, Bremen; the X-ray mirrors are produced by Carl Zeiss. The satellite will be launched by a Kosmos rocket from Kapustin Yar (southern Russia, near Volgograd). X-ray tests and calibrations of the telescope are performed in the PANTER test facility of the MPE.

The optical system consists of 7 identical Wolter-I telescopes of 1600 mm focal length, each with 27 nested mirrors of lengths 300 mm and diameters ranging from 163 mm to 76 mm. The 7 focal planes share one 6 cm x 6 cm XMM pn-CCD array. Thus the optical axes diverge and the 7 fields of view, each about 40 arcmin in diameter, are ~7 degrees apart of each other on the sky which is scanned along great circles. The shift of 4 arcmin in ecliptic longitude between successive orbits provides a contiguous coverage of the sky.


Peter Friedrich: pfriedrich@aip.de
last changed: 08-Dec-1998
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