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Broad-Band X-ray Observatory

The Broad-Band X-ray (BBX) Science Analysis Group (SAG) will focus on identifying the scientific opportunities that would require coverage beyond typical capabilities of soft X-ray imaging missions like Chandra, XMM, and Swift. Membership, including volunteers from the PhysPAG and broader astrophysics and technology communities, will be open.

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About BBX SAG

Astrophysics Will Critically Need a High Angular Resolution Broad-Band X-ray Mission

Possibilities to be explored include a flagship-class mission with multiple instruments, or multiple missions operating in tandem.

This SAG’s mission is primarily focused on the science case available to different configurations.

Subscribe to the BBX SAG Email List about Astrophysics Will Critically Need a High Angular Resolution Broad-Band X-ray Mission
A black background is dotted with galaxies and a few foreground stars. Most of the center, from the lower-left to upper right, is filled with translucent blobs of various shades of blue, sometimes blended with purple, to denote temperature of matter. There are also a couple streaks/blobs of pinkish-red
Galaxy clusters are enormous collections of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies and vast reservoirs of hot gas embedded in massive clouds of dark matter, invisible material that does not emit or absorb light but can be detected through its gravitational effects. MACS J0717.5+3745, one of the most complex and distorted galaxy clusters known, is the site of a collision between four clusters. It is located about 5.4 billion light-years away from Earth. This image of MACS J0717 contain data from two other telescopes in addition to the Hubble Space Telescope: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (diffuse emission in blue), Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue), and the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (diffuse emission in pink). Where the X-ray and radio emission overlap, the image appears purple.
NASA, ESA, CXC, NRAO/AUI/NSF, STScI, R. van Weeren (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), and G. Ogrean (Stanford University); Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, J. Lotz (STScI), and the HFF team

Much of the progress to our understanding of high energy astrophysical phenomena made over the past decade was driven by the coordinated observations between multiple X-ray missions. Observations covering a wide range of energy enabled a simultaneous study of various thermal and/or non-thermal physical processes in extreme environments such as shock waves, jets, accretion disc, and X-ray corona that often vary on short time scales. However, current high-energy broad-band observations are still limited by the lack of high angular resolution capability at energy ranges beyond Chandra's bandpass. Moreover, new facilities will increase the number of variable and transient objects by orders of magnitude in the upcoming decade. A high angular resolution broad-band X-ray mission will be critically needed by the astrophysics community to investigate the nature of these targets.

The Broad-Band-X-ray (BBX) Science Analysis Group (SAG) will focus on identifying the scientific opportunities that would require coverage beyond typical capabilities of soft X-ray imaging missions like Chandra, XMM, and Swift (roughly 0.2 keV to roughly 10 keV) , such as the following examples:

  1. Directly detecting and understanding the obscured X-ray population that constitutes the bulk of the Cosmic X-ray background at its peak (20-30 keV).
  2. Understanding physics in extreme environments through simultaneous broad-band spectral fitting from soft X-rays up to 100 keV or more.
  3. Resolving faint extended emission in sites of particle acceleration, such as AGN jets and shock waves in supernova remnants and galaxy clusters.

To support this effort, the SAG will also evaluate the impact of various technical capabilities, such as energy range, throughput and field of view requirements; time-domain monitoring and response strategy, taking into account the trade-off between different mission parameters. Possibilities to be explored include a flagship-class mission with multiple instruments, or multiple missions operating in tandem. This SAG’s mission is primarily focused on the science case available to different configurations - there should only be high-level discussion about the engineering or budgetary realities associated with any particular design.

The SAG will be chaired by with working group (WG) leads selected by the X-ray SIG chairs. Membership, including volunteers from the PhysPAG and broader astrophysics and technology communities, will be open.
The SAG will organize its work into thematic WGs corresponding to the science categories to be defined by the SAG co-chairs with inputs from the XRSIG, with an additional WG focused on technical enablers and mission architecture. Each WG will be responsible for gathering community input through email solicitations, teleconferences, and meetings at venues such as the HEAD and AAS meetings.

The SAG will hold regular virtual meetings and coordinate across WGs. The final deliverable will be a community-vetted report to NASA HQ in 2026 summarizing the science case, technical drivers, for future studies of X-ray mission(s).

SAG Chairs

NameInstitution
Chien-Ting ChenUSRA/MSFC
Kristin Madsen GSFC
Daniel SternJPL

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This cropped horizontal image has layers of semi-opaque rusty red colored gas and dust that starts at the bottom right and goes toward the top left. There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top left. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines.