Publication date: 29 Jul 2010

Authors: McEntaffer, R., et al.

Journal: Proc. SPIE
Volume: 7732
Year: 2010

Copyright: SPIE

The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is a collaborative effort between NASA, ESA, and JAXA. The IXO science goals are heavily based on obtaining high quality X-ray spectra. In order to achieve this goal the science payload will incorporate an array of gratings for high resolution, high throughput spectroscopy at the lowest X-ray energies, 0.3 - 1.0 keV. The spectrometer will address a number of important astrophysical goals such as studying the dynamics of clusters of galaxies, determining how elements are created in the explosions of massive stars, and revealing most of the "normal" matter in the universe which is currently thought to be hidden in hot filaments of gas stretching between galaxies. We present here a mature design concept for an Off-Plane X-ray Grating Spectrometer (OP-XGS). This XGS concept has seen recent significant advancements in optical and mechanical design. We present here an analysis of how the baseline OP-XGS design fulfills the IXO science requirements for the XGS and the optical and mechanical details of this design.

This paper was presented at the SPIE conference on Astronomical Instrumentation 2010 conference.

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