Suzaku (Astro-E2)

Suzaku, formerly known as NeXT, is Japan's fifth X-ray astronomy mission, and was developed at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA) in collaboration with U.S. (NASA/GSFC, MIT) and Japanese institutions. Suzaku covers the energy range 0.2 - 600 keV with the two instruments, X-ray CCDs (X-ray Imaging Spectrometer; XIS), and the hard X-ray detector (HXD). Suzaku also carries a third instrument, an X-ray micro-calorimeter (X-ray Spectrometer; XRS), but the XRS lost all its cryogen before routine scientific observations could begin.

The U.S. Suzaku Guest Observer Facility (GOF) is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The GOF is part of the Office of General Investigator Programs (OGIP) in the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD).

The primary responsibility of the U.S. Suzaku GOF is to enable U.S. astronomers to make the best use of the Suzaku mission. To fulfill this responsibility, the Suzaku GOF staff performs such activities as supporting the U.S. side of the Suzaku proposal selection process, distributing usable data to U.S. Guest Observers, helping Guest Observers to analyze their data, and creating the mission archive.

In addition to the tasks listed above, the U.S. Suzaku GOF activities include the development of software, the compilation and production of documentation for that software, and the provision of expert help. All of the U.S. Suzaku GOF's activities involve close collaboration with the Japanese Suzaku team.

The original Astro-E was launched February 10, 2000, but there was a problem with the first stage of the Japanese rocket, and the satellite was declared unusable.

Suzaku explored faint X-ray emission of hot gas across two swaths of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. The images, which record X-rays with energies between 700 and 7,000 electron volts in a combined exposure of three days, are shown in two false-color strips. Bluer colors indicate less intense X-ray emission. The dashed circle is 11.6 million light-years across and marks the so-called virial radius, where cold gas is now entering the cluster. Red circles indicate X-ray sources not associated with the cluster. Inset: An image of the cluster's bright central region taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown to scale. (Credits: NASA/ISAS/DSS/A. Simionescu et al.; inset: NASA/CXC/A. Fabian et al.)