Service d'Astrophysique, Bāt. 709 Orme des Merisiers, CEA/Saclay
PCHE-
91191
Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Presentation 1 : None
SIMBOL-X, an X-ray telescope for the 0.5-70 keV range (PCHE)
Philippe Ferrando, for the SIMBOL-X collaboration
SIMBOL-X is a french-italian project proposed to CNES in response to its call for ideas, which will bring the "X-ray" spatial angular resolution and sensitivity into the hard X-ray domain, by use of the same focusing technique as the one currently used below 10 keV.
SIMBOL-X, to be launched late 2008, will have a 600 cm2 Wolter-I type mirror of 30 m of focal length, 20 arcsec of spatial resolution. The sensitivity above 10 keV will be 2 orders of magnitude better than any existing mission to date. The long focal length is obtained by having the mirror module and the focal plane detector assembly on two different spacecrafts, in a formation flying configuration.
SIMBOL-X will allow to solve a large number of questions regarding the high energy emission of vastly different objects, galactic and extra-galactic, including the origin of the diffuse X-ray background. These objectives, as well as the characteristics of the mission and its status will be presented.