X-IFU in a nutshell
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the X-IFU is right here. The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) The X-IFU is a revolutionary X-ray spectrometer. It is the one of the two instruments of the European Space Agency’s future space telescope, NewAthena (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics). With its X-ray eyes, the X-IFU will […]
Key capabilities
Discover what makes the X-IFU so revolutionary The key capabilities of X-IFU lie in its unprecedented spectral resolution, better than 4.0 eV up to 7 keV (design goal of 3 eV), combined with a large effective area, over a 4 arcminute (the equivalent diameter) hexagonal field of view and a low instrumental background. In addition, thanks […]
Building the instrument
A deep dive into this complex instrument The X-IFU detectors The X-IFU relies on a cryostat and a cooling chain which enable the prime and the cryogenic anti-coincidence detectors to operate. The prime X-IFU detector is a large array of about 1500 X-ray absorbers on top of highly-sensitive micro-calorimeters called Transition Edge Sensors. The micro-calorimeters sense the […]
History
The X-IFU’s Timeline The beginning of the NewAthena Mission When the NewAthena observatory is finally launched after the mid-30s, it will have been over 35 years in the making. The first idea for a new X-ray astronomy mission had taken seed in the minds of astrophysicists back in 1996, as a follow-up to XMM-Newton which had not yet been launched. In […]