The advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF)

Abstract

NASA's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) will be an orbiting X-ray observatory, designed to address fundamental questions in astronomy and astrophysics. AXAF is the successor to NASA's second High Energy Astronomy Observatory, the Einstein X-ray Observatory, which operated from 1978 to 1981. Like the Einstein, the AXAF will be built around a grazing incidence telescope capable of forming X-ray images. AXAF, however, will go far beyond the Einstein in capability having about 10 times the angular resolution, about 100 times the sensitivity for imaging, and up to about 1000 times the sensitivity for spectroscopy. The AXAF will operate in space for 15 years, and be maintained and refurbished by use of NASA's Space Station.