Energetic x-ray imaging survey telescope (EXIST)

Jonathan E. Grindlay; Thomas A. Prince; Neil A. Gehrels; Jack Tueller; Charles J. Hailey; Brian D. Ramsey; Martin C. Weisskopf; Pietro Ubertini; Gerald K. Skinner

doi:10.1117/12.218377

1 September 1995 Energetic x-ray imaging survey telescope (EXIST)

Jonathan E. Grindlay, Thomas A. Prince, Neil A. Gehrels, Jack Tueller, Charles J. Hailey, Brian D. Ramsey, Martin C. Weisskopf, Pietro Ubertini, Gerald K. Skinner

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 2518, EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy VI; (1995) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.218377
Event: SPIE's 1995 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1995, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

We have begun to study a mission to carry out the first high sensitivity imaging survey of the entire sky at hard x-ray energies (5 - 600 keV). The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) would include 2 - 4 large area coded aperture telescopes with offset fields of view allowing total exposures of >= 500 ksec and flux sensitivities below 1 mCrab over the full sky in a year with time resolution from msec to months for each source as well as high spatial and spectral resolution for sources, transients and gamma-ray bursts. A pointed observatory phase, with the telescopes co-aligned, would follow and achieve still greater sensitivities and temporal coverage, allowing the detailed study of virtually all classes of accretion sources (cataclysmic variables to quasars) as well as diffuse galactic emission. The baseline concept originally proposed for the detector is a modularized array (4 X 4) of Cd-Zn-Te crystals (6.25 cm² each, or 100 cm²/module). An array of 5 X 5 modules, or 2500 cm² total detector area with 1.25 mm spatial resolution, would constitute the focal plane readout of each of the four telescopes. A brief descriptio of the proposed detector and telescopes and predicted backgrounds and sensitivity is given.

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Jonathan E. Grindlay, Thomas A. Prince, Neil A. Gehrels, Jack Tueller, Charles J. Hailey, Brian D. Ramsey, Martin C. Weisskopf, Pietro Ubertini, and Gerald K. Skinner "Energetic x-ray imaging survey telescope (EXIST)", Proc. SPIE 2518, EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, (1 September 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.218377

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