CXBN: a blueprint for an improved measurement of the cosmological x-ray background

Simms, Lance M.; Jeringan, J G; Malphrus, B.; McNeil, R. R.; Brown, Kevin; Rose, Tyler; Lim, L. F.; Kruth, Jeff; Thomas, E.; Combs, M.; Kroll, Robert; Cahall, Benjamin; Turba, T T; Molton, Brandon; Powell, Margaret; Fitzpatrick, Jonathan; Graves, D. C.; Anderson, Sandra; Cominsky, L.; Prasad, Kamal; Doty, J.; Wampler-Doty, Matthew; Gaalema, Stephen D.; Sun, Shunming

doi:10.1117/12.953573

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…CubeSats can also be used for technology demonstrations; while such demonstrations may not be able to make the desired scientific observations on a CubeSat platform, they can reduce risk and increase the technology readiness level of key elements of future scientific instruments, such as detectors, actuators, optical sub-assemblies, and drive electronics. Examples of astrophysics nanosatellite flight missions that have already launched include the Cosmic X-Ray Background Nanosatellite (CXBN) mission [Simms et al, 2012], the Bright Target Explorer (BRITE) (Baade, D. et al Short-term variability and mass loss in Be stars -I. BRITE satellite photometry of η and µ Centauri. A&A 588, A56 (2016)) and the Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA) [Smith et al, 2018] CXBN-2 was launched in 2012 to observe the diffuse X-ray background and help understand the underlying physics of the early universe.…”

Section: Recent Progress In Cubesats For Astronomymentioning

confidence: 99%

SwiftandNuSTARobservations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova

Evans

Cenko

Kennea

et al. 2017

Science

500

364

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With the first direct detection of merging black holes in 2015, the era of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics began. A complete picture of compact object mergers, however, requires the detection of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. We report ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray observations by Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) of the EM counterpart of the binary neutron star merger GW 170817. The bright, rapidly fading ultraviolet emission indicates a high mass (≈ 0.03 solar masses) wind-driven outflow with moderate electron fraction (Y e ≈ 0.27). Combined with the X-ray limits, we favor an observer viewing angle of ≈ 30• away from the orbital rotation axis, which avoids both obscuration from the heaviest elements in the orbital plane and a direct view of any ultra-relativistic, highly collimated ejecta (a gamma-ray burst afterglow). One-sentence summaryWe report X-ray and UV observations of the first binary neutron star merger detected via gravitational waves. Main TextAt 12:41:04.45 on 2017 August 17 (UT times are used throughout this work), the Laser Interferometric GravitationalWave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Consortium (LVC) registered a strong gravitational wave (GW) signal (LVC trigger G298048; (1)), later named GW 170817 (2). Unlike previous GW sources reported by LIGO, which involved only black holes (3), the gravitational strain waveforms indicated a merger of two neutron stars. Binary neutron star mergers have long been considered a promising candidate for the detection of an electromagnetic counterpart associated with a gravitational wave source. Two seconds later, the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi spacecraft triggered on a short (duration ≈ 2 s) gamma-ray signal consistent with the GW localization, GRB 170817A (4, 5). 330°00'00" 300°00'00" 270°00'00" 240°00'00" 210°00'00" 180°00'00" 150°00'00" 120°00'00" 90°00'00" 30°0°Figure 1: Skymap of Swift XRT observations, in equatorial (J2000) coordinates. The grey probability area is the GW localization (13), the blue region shows the Fermi-GBM localization, and the red circles are Swift-XRT fields of view. UVOT fields are colocated with a field of view 60% of the XRT. The location of the counterpart, EM 170817, is marked with a large yellow cross. The early 37-point mosaic can be seen, centred on the GBM probability. The widely scattered points are from the first uploaded observing plan, which was based on the singledetector GW skymap. The final observed plan was based on the first 3-detector map (11), however we show here the higher-quality map (13) so that our coverage can be compared to the final probability map (which was not available at the time of our planning; (7)).Swift satellite (6) in its low-Earth orbit meant that the GW and gamma-ray burst (GRB) localizations were occulted by the Earth (7) and so not visible to its Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). These discoveries triggered a world-wide effort to find, localize and characterize the EM counterpart (8). We present UV and X-ray observations conducted as part of t...

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Section: Recent Progress In Cubesats For Astronomymentioning

confidence: 99%

SwiftandNuSTARobservations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova

Evans

Cenko

Kennea

et al. 2017

Science

500

364

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…CdZnTe crystals have been used at the focal plane of the N uStar X-ray telescope [10] and as the detector plane in coded mask imagers of ASIM [11] on the International Space Station, CZTI on AST ROSAT [12] and BAT on Neil Gehrels SWIFT Observatory [13]. For CubeSat missions, CdZnTe based detectors have been utilized in AAUSAT-2 (http://studentspace.aau.dk/aausatii/) and XRD on iXRD Design and Test BeEagleSat [14] as technology demonstrators, and on CXBN-I and CXBN-II to characterize the cosmic X-ray background in 30-60 keV band [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Improved X-ray Detector (iXRD) on Sharjah-Sat-1, design principles, tests and ground calibration

et al. 2023

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The iXRD is the primary science payload on Sharjah-Sat-1, a 3U CubeSat expected to be launched in Q4, 2022. Its main scientific goal is monitoring bright hard X-ray sources and transients in 20 -200 keV band. The iXRD consists of a CdZnTe crystal (6.45 cm 2 area, 5 mm thickness), a Tungsten collimator with square holes with an opening angle of 4.26 • , readout and control electronics and power circuitry, a back-shield and mechanical structures. Some of the design elements of iXRD have been inherited from the XRD on BeEagleSat with significant improvements in terms of collecting area, X-ray background and electronic noise. In this article, the design of the iXRD is discussed in detail taking into account mechanical, electronics, control software and data handling aspects. Its expected performance is determined after ground calibration. Depending on the pixel size, the energy resolution is 4 -7 keV at 60 keV and the minimum detectable energy is 19 -23 keV.

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“…Although CubeSat missions cannot fully replace mainstream space missions, they have proven to be a useful and inexpensive platform for small payloads [23,24]. CubeSats have been used in scientific fields of Earth science [25][26][27], space weather [28][29][30], and astrophysics [27,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CubeSat Observation of the Radiation Field of the South Atlantic Anomaly

Kovář

Sommer

2021

Remote Sensing

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The movement of the South Atlantic Anomaly has been observed since the end of the last century by many spacecrafts equipped with various types of radiation detectors. All satellites that have observed the drift of the South Atlantic Anomaly have been exclusively large missions with heavy payload equipment. With the recent rapid progression of CubeSats, it can be expected that the routine monitoring of the South Atlantic Anomaly will be taken over by CubeSats in the future. We present one-and-a-half years of observations of the South Atlantic Anomaly radiation field measured by a CubeSat in polar orbit with an elevation of 540 km. The position is calculated by an improved centroid method that takes into account the area of the grid. The dataset consists of eight campaigns measured at different times, each with a length of 22 orbits (~2000 min). The radiation data were combined with GPS position data. We detected westward movement at 0.33°/year and southward movement at 0.25°/year. The position of the fluence maximum featured higher scatter than the centroid position.

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CXBN: a blueprint for an improved measurement of the cosmological x-ray background

Cited by 7 publications

References 8 publications

SwiftandNuSTARobservations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova

SwiftandNuSTARobservations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova

The Improved X-ray Detector (iXRD) on Sharjah-Sat-1, design principles, tests and ground calibration

CubeSat Observation of the Radiation Field of the South Atlantic Anomaly

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