Proceedings Article | 15 June 2006
Proc. SPIE. 6266, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation II: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
KEYWORDS: Iron, Sensors, Satellites, Spectroscopy, X-rays, Plasmas, CCD cameras, Charge-coupled devices, X-ray imaging, X-ray telescopes
Suzaku satellite, the Japan-US collaborative mission, was successfully launched on July 10, 2006. It is equipped with 5 soft X-ray telescopes (XRT), one micro-calorimeter (XRS), 4 CCD cameras (XIS), and one hard X-ray detector (HXD). Though XRS is not operational, XIS and HXD provide us with new views of thermal and non-thermal phenomena. Better efficiency and energy resolution of CCD allow us to investigate emission lines from C and O, as well as Fe-K lines. Objectives are planetary nebula, supernova remnants, Galactic center and cluster of galaxies. The status and origin of the plasmas are well examined from the line energies, line ratios, and line broadening. Another area, Suzaku satellite has advantages is broadband spectroscopy with better sensitivity. Targets are X-ray binaries, active galactic nuclei, and cluster of galaxies. Non-thermal components are well determined by the broad band spectra and their variability. Broad iron lines are well confirmed with accurate determination of underlying continuum components. After the performance verification phase with 70 targets, the first term of general observer program (AO-1) has been started from April 1. AO-2 proposals are due December 1, 2006. It is also announce that a Suzaku Symposium will be held on December 4-8, Kyoto, Japan.
