About XRISM
The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is a JAXA/NASA
collaborative mission, with ESA participation, with the objective to
investigate X-ray celestial objects in the Universe with
high-throughput, high-resolution spectroscopy. XRISM is expected to
launch in Japanese Fiscal Year 2023 on a JAXA H-IIA rocket.
XRISM will study the most extreme environments in the cosmos using
X-ray light, supporting NASA's mission to explore the unknown in space
and inspire the world through discovery. The mission is designed to
transform our understanding of the hot and energetic universe,
allowing ground-breaking new research into black holes, clusters
of galaxies, compact objects, and the aftermath of stellar explosions.
XRISM will use X-ray spectroscopy to determine the chemical makeup of
distant objects with unprecedented high-resolution, revealing new
insights about the physics of the cosmos. The mission will help shed
light on some of the most compelling topics in astrophysics,
including
the structure and evolution of the universe,
the creation and distribution of heavy elements,
and how energy and matter are transported and circulated in
regions of strong gravity, electromagnetic fields, and shock waves.
XRISM will accomplish this with two complementary instruments:
Resolve, XRISM's core instrument, is a high-resolution X-ray spectrometer that is one of the coldest instruments ever designed, operating at just a few hundredths of a degree above absolute zero. The spectra from Resolve will be the most detailed ever captured for a wide variety of objects in the universe.
Resolve is complemented by Xtend, a soft X-ray imager that expands the observatory's field of view to give XRISM one of the largest viewing areas of any X-ray imaging observatory ever flown.
Sample XRISM Science
XRISM is a general purpose X-ray observatory.
Here are some of the science topics that astrophysicists desire to explore with XRISM.
Clusters of Galaxies
Left: Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/M.McDonald et al.; Radio: NRAO/VLA; Optical: NASA/STScI
Right: Credit: Sanders et al. (2016)
Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound structures of
our Universe. Most of the normal matter is in the form of a hot, X-ray
emitting gas that exists between the individual galaxies known as the
"intracluster medium." But what is the cosmic history of this medium?
How does it assemble into such large scale structures? How does it get
heated to extreme temperatures of tens of millions of degrees? How do
outflows from supermassive black holes and cluster-cluster mergers
affect its dynamics on both large and small scales? What is the
chemical composition of this gas and how do clusters get enriched by
stars and supernovae across cosmic times? XRISM will make detailed
measurements of these objects, characterizing the temperature,
chemical makeup, and motions of the hot gas in clusters, providing
decisive answers to these fundamental questions and revolutionizing
our understanding of the formation and the evolution of the largest
structures in our Universe.
Hot Stars
True-color X-ray image of the super massive star, eta Carinae, observed with Chandra
Image credit: NASA/CXC/GSFC/K.Hamaguchi, et al.
Massive stars with tens of solar masses slowly lose mass through
high-velocity winds, especially near the end of their lifetime. These
gases include elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon, which go
on to be the ingredients of future stars, planets, and even life
itself. XRISM will measure the motions and elemental abundances of hot
gases produced by the winds, witnessing how these stars supply
essential materials to the cosmos.
Supernova Remnants
Tycho's supernova remnant, the remains of the supernova of 1572 C.E. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIKEN & GSFC/T. Sato et al; Optical: DSS
XRISM observations will be ideally suited to spatially-extended sources such as supernova remnants, whose X-ray morphology is a complex interplay between plasma in various ionization states. High spectral resolution observations will allow astronomers to disentangle the components of the emission lines resulting from the thermal properties of the hot gas with those resulting from the bulk motion of the material expanding at thousands of kilometers per second. XRISM will make detailed measurements of the abundances of various elements synthesized in the supernova, a direct probe of the mechanism of the stellar explosion.
Starbursts
Chandra image of M82 starburst galaxy. Credit: NASA/CXC/Wesleyan/R.Kilgard et al.
A collection of stellar winds from massive stars and supernova
explosions create a galaxy wind, which removes materials from the
galaxy and, therefore, affects the evolution of the galaxy. But how do
winds blow through galaxies? How far do winds travel? And what is the
fate of hot winds? XRISM will measure the velocity of the hot winds,
for the first time, to constrain the total energy of the winds driven
by star formation. XRISM will also provide the metal contents of winds
to trace how heavy materials are transported into intergalactic
space.
Black Holes
Illustration of the supermassive black hole with
a wind. Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab; Tombesi et al.
Black holes big and small, when actively accreting matter, can launch powerful winds from their accretion disks. In the case of the supermassive black holes in centers of galaxies, these outflows can carry massive amounts of mass and energy, potentially impacting gas and stars in the host galaxy.
XRISM is uniquely suited to answer many critical questions about the origin and destiny of such black hole winds. Thanks to Resolve's high spectral resolution in the hard X-ray band and good effective area, scientists will be able to resolve the structure of absorption lines imprinted by these outflows onto the black hole disk radiation and determine their velocities, column densities, and ionization. Furthermore, if the absorption features reveal (currently unknown) any particular shapes, they could be used to determine what force is pushing the gas away from the black hole, answering the long-standing question of whether these winds are magnetically, radiatively, or thermally driven.
High Mass X-ray Binaries
Artist's impression of a clump of matter engulfing the neutron star in a High Mass X-ray Binary system. Image: ESA/AOES Medialab; Bozzo et al.
High Mass X-ray Binaries, which consist of a massive star and a
compact object, provide the opportunity to study stellar winds as well
as the binary mass transfer in great detail. In these systems
radiation from the accretion process around the compact object is
"X-raying" the wind material. The wind material that is being accreted
is complex, e.g., as characterized by its geometry, its ionization
structure, possible clumping, and more. With its high spectral
resolution XRISM is exceptionally well suited for separating the X-ray
signatures of different wind components and characterizing the binary
accretion process.
The detailed descriptions of the capabilities of XRISM with sample
sample science topics can be found in this White Paper:
Science with the
X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM)
arXiv:2003.04962 .
XRISM Instruments
The XRISM payload consists of two instruments:
Resolve, a soft X-ray spectrometer, which combines a lightweight Soft X-ray Telescope paired with a X-ray Calorimeter Spectrometer, and provides non-dispersive 5-7 eV energy resolution in the 0.3-12 keV bandpass with a field of view of about 3 arcmin.
Left: The Resolve detector is a microcalorimeter array. Right: XRISM Resolve Calorimeter insert with detector installed.
Xtend, a soft X-ray Imager, is a CCD detector with a larger field, at the focus of the second lightweights Soft X-ray Telescope in the energy range of 0.4-13 keV
Their characteristics are similar to the SXS and SXI, respectively flown
on Hitomi. XRISM is designed to recover the science capability lost
with the Hitomi incident, but focuses only on the soft X-ray bands.
Each instrument is combined with an identical X-ray Mirror Assembly (XMA),
which houses the primary (parabolic nested foils) and secondary (hyperbolic nested
foils) mirrors. Each mirror contains 4 quadrants with 203 nested mirror foil segments
(1624 mirror segments in a single XMA).
XRISM team member Yang Soong, a researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park, displays one of the 1,624 foil mirror segments used in an X-ray Mirror Assembly.
Credit: Taylor Mickal/NASA
Left: One quadrant of a mirror.
Right: Fully assembled primary and secondary mirrors of the XMA. Credit: Taylor Mickal/NASA.
XRISM
Factsheet summarises the instrument descriptions and
performances.
XRISM at GSFC
NASA/GSFC develops the Resolve detector and many of its subsystems together with
the Soft X-ray Telescopes. NASA/GSFC has also responsibility for the Science Data
Center charter to delevelop the analysis software for all instruments, the data
processing pipeline as well as to support Guest Observers and the XRISM Guest Observer
Program.
If you have questions regarding XRISM, concerning, e.g., calibration, analysis, proposing, ToOs, or coordination, please
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