ART-XC
The Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator is an X-ray telescope with a grazing incidence mirror that is capable of capturing high energy X-ray photons within the 5-30 keV energy range. This telescope is one of the two X-ray telescopes on the Spektr-RG mission. The other telescope that SRG carries is eROSITA. The observatory was launched on 13 July 2019 via a Proton rocket from the Russian launch site Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Overview
ART-XC was developed by the Space Research Institute and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Experimental Physics. The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center has developed and fabricated flight models of the X-ray mirror systems. The ART-XC telescope consists of 7 identical mirror modules each made with 28 nickel-cobalt grazing-incidence mirrors. The mirror design is Wolter-I and is coated with iridium. Each module also has its own cadmium-tellurium double-sided strip detector. The typical on-axis half-power diameter of ART-XC is 27 to 34 arcsec, while the effective area of each module is 65 cm2. The field of view for each module is about 36′ in diameter.ART-XC will survey the entire sky every 6-month, and the planned all-sky survey will be completed in the first four years of the mission.
First light
Roscosmos published the first light image of ART-XC, which was taken on July 30, 2019. The image shows the source Centaurus X-3 imaged with the 7 telescopes, as well as the light curve of the pulsar folded at its pulse period of 4.8s.Instruments
| eROSITA | ART-XC | |
| Organisation | Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics | IKI / VNIIEF |
| Telescope type | Wolter | Wolter |
| Wavelength | X-ray | X-ray |
| Mass | 810 kg | 350 kg |
| Sensitivity range | 0.3 - 10 keV | 6 - 30 keV |
| View angle | 1 degree | 30 arcminutes |
| Angular resolution | 15 arcseconds | 45 arcseconds |
| Sensor area | 2,400 cm2/ 1 keV | 450 cm2/ 8 keV |