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Themes > Science > Physics > Astrophysics > The History of High-Energy Astrophysics > 2000-2005 |
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2005 |
Scheduled launch of the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), NASA's planned next generation high-energy gamma-ray observatory designed for making observations of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy band extending from 10 MeV to more than 100 GeV. It follows in the footsteps of the CGRO-EGRET experiment, which was operational between 1991-1999. The key scientific objectives of the GLAST mission are: 1. To understand the mechanisms of
particle acceleration in AGNs, pulsars, and SNRs. |
Jan/Feb 2005 |
Scheduled launch of the ASTRO-E2 Mission, a replacement of the ASTRO-E mission which suffered a launch failure on February 10 2000. ASTRO-E2 will be Japan's fifth X-ray astronomy mission, and is being developed at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in Japan, in collaboration with U.S. (NASA/GSFC, MIT) and other Japanese institutions. ASTRO-E2 will cover the energy range from 0.4 - 700 keV with three instruments, an X-ray micro-calorimeter (X-ray Spectrometer; XRS), X-ray CCDs (X-ray Imaging Spectrometer; XIS), and the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD). These three instruments on Astro-E2 will provide powerful tools to use the Universe as a laboratory for unraveling complex, high-energy processes and the behavior of matter under extreme conditions. Scientific issues that will be addressed include the fate of matter as it spirals into black holes, the nature of supermassive black holes found at the center of quasars, the 100 million degree gas that is flowing into giant clusters of galaxies, and the nature of supernova explosions that create the heavier elements, which ultimately form planets. |
Sep 2003 |
Scheduled launch of the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, a NASA medium-class explorer (MIDEX) mission. It is a three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts. Swift will have the unique ability to repoint its UV/optical, and X-ray telescopes to the position in the sky of a gamma-ray burst within about one minute of its occurrence. It is expected that Swift will detect about 300 gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows per year. Swift will also survey the sky for black holes and other sources of cosmic gamma-rays: it is predicted that it will find 400 or so new supermassive black holes. |
2003 |
Scheduled launch of the Spectrum-X-Gamma (SXG) (or Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG), as it is sometimes called) mission, an international high-energy astrophysics observatory under the leadership of the Russian Space Research Institute (IKI) and including NASA-funded US science participants. SXG will contain a number of imaging instruments which will be sensitive to cosmic photons with energies ranging between 0.03 and 100 keV. Its main objective is the study of energetic processes in the universe whereever they occur, from relatively small objects such as neutron stars and white dwarf stars to large ojects such as active galactic nuclei. |
2003 |
Scheduled launch of the Agile (Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero, or Light Astro Gamma Imaging Detector) mission, an Italian Space Agency gamma-ray mission conceived as a bridge between the EGRET gamma-ray detector on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) and the GLAST mission. AGILE is planned as a three-year mission, with emphasis on quicklook analysis, alert, and rapid communication of results. The AGILE telescope (30 MeV - 50 GeV) uses a particle tracking device to measure the electron and positron resulting from the gamma-ray pair conversion process, together with a calorimeter to determine the energy. An anti-coincidence detector to separate the gamma rays from the background of cosmic ray charged particles found in space. Smaller than EGRET, improved technology gives it comparable on-axis sensitivity, a much wider field of view (about 3 sr, or one-fourth of the sky), better angular resolution (5 - 20 arcminutes for strong sources) and a much smaller deadtime (less than 1 millisecond). This combination of features will allow AGILE to expand on the EGRET discoveries significantly and set the scientific groundwork for the much larger NASA GLAST mission. An AGILE Guest Observer Program will be open to the international community with strong emphasis on coordinated radio/optical/X-ray observations simultaneous with gamma-ray pointings. AGILE is ideal for detecting AGN flaring activity, gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, new transients, solar flares, and cosmic-ray interactions in the Galaxy. |
Fall 2002 |
Scheduled launch of the The Relativity Mission, Gravity Probe-B, an experiment comprising 4 incredibly precise gyroscopes so as to test two predictions of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, namely the existence of gravitomagnetic (`frame-dragging') and geodetic forces. |
Oct 17, 2002 |
Scheduled launch of the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), an observatory that will perform both spectroscopy and imaging on celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy range from 15 keV to 10 MeV, as well as concurrently monitor them in the X-ray and optical domains. |
April 2002 |
Scheduled launch of the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS), a NASA University-Class Explorer (UNEX) mission that will carry out all-sky spectroscopy of the diffuse background at wavelengths from 90 to 260 Å (energies from 0.048 to 0.14 keV). CHIPS data will be used to study the electron temperature, ionization conditions, and cooling mechanisms of the million-degree plasma that is believed to fill the `local interstellar bubble'. |
Mar 2, 2001 at 05:21 UT |
Re-entry of the ASCA satellite into the Earth's atmosphere, after more than 8 years in orbit where it was one of the major X-ray observatories of the last decade. The orbital re-entry occurred over the western Pacific Ocean, at 8.2 degrees South latitude, and 163.2 degrees East longitude. |
Jan 31, 2001 |
End of mission operations of NASA's Extreme UltraViolet Explorer (EUVE), the first mission dedicated to observing in the relatively unexplored extreme-ultraviolet region of the spectrum. |
Nov 16, 2000 |
End of operations of the Unconventional Stellar Aspect (USA) Experiment, one of nine experiments on board the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS), which was designed to do X-ray timing and time-resolved spectroscopy of relatively bright X-ray sources, such as X-ray binaries. |
Oct 9, 2000 at 5:38 UTC |
Successful launch of the High-Energy Transient Experiment II (HETE-II) to carry out a multiwavelength study of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray instruments. HETE-II is an international collaboration led by the Center for Space Research at MIT. Unique features of the mission are the ability to localize GRBs to an accuracy of several arcseconds, in near-real time, aboard the spacecraft, and to relay the coordinates to the ground for distribution to interested observers within seconds of burst detection. This will allow the latter to make detailed observations at optical and other wavebands of the initial phases of GRBs (still operational). |
Jun 4, 2000 |
Planned de-orbiting of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory; this was necessary due to the failure of one of Compton's three gyroscopes. Since at least two gyroscopes are required for the spacecraft to have attitude control, the loss of a second gyroscope would have meant that a controlled re-entry would have been impossible. Compton was therefore deliberately de-orbited by NASA, destroying the spacecraft, but ensuring that its fragments harmlessly splashed into the Pacific Ocean. Re-entry was at approximately 2:10 am Eastern Daylight Time on June 4th, with an approximate impact site 2400 miles southeast of Hawaii in the Pacific. |
Feb 10, 2000 |
Failed launch of the 5th Japanese X-Ray Astronomy Mission (Astro-E), which had the goals of observing astronomical objects at cosmological distances in X-ray wavelengths, and of performing high spectral resolution and wide-band X-ray spectroscopy of cosmic high-temperature plasmas. Astro-E would have covered the energy range from 0.4 to 700 keV with three instruments, an X-ray micro-calorimeter (the X-Ray Spectrometer or XRS), a set of four X-ray CCD cameras (the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer or XIS), and the Hard X-ray Detector or HXD. Unfortunately, due to a first stage rocket malfunction, it failed to acheive orbit and was lost. |
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