Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics
| Mission type | Space observatory | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | European Space Agency | ||||||
| Website | http://www.the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu/ | ||||||
| Mission duration | 5 years | ||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||
| Launch mass | 5,525 kg (12,181 lb) | ||||||
| BOL mass | 5,353 kg (11,801 lb) | ||||||
| Dry mass | 5,038 kg (11,107 lb) | ||||||
| Power | 5.556 kilowatts (5,556 W) | ||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||
| Launch date | 2028 | ||||||
| Rocket | Ariane 6 | ||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||
| Reference system | L2 point | ||||||
| Main | |||||||
| Type | X-ray telescope | ||||||
| Focal length | 12m | ||||||
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| Instruments | |
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| X-IFU | X-ray Integral Field Unit |
| WFI | Wide Field Imager |
The Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics (ATHENA) is a future X-ray telescope of the European Space Agency, under development for launch around 2028. It is the second (L2) large class mission within ESA Cosmic Vision Program. ATHENA will be one hundred times more sensitive than the best of existing X-ray telescopes—Chandra X-ray Observatory, and XMM-Newton.
The primary goals of the mission are to map hot gas structures, determining their physical properties, and searching for supermassive black holes.
The mission has its roots in two mission concepts from the early 2000s, for the ESA XEUS and NASA Constellation-X missions. In around 2008, these two proposals were merged into the joint NASA/ESA/JAXA International X-ray Observatory (IXO) proposal. However, in 2011 NASA withdrew from IXO due to funding issues, mainly due to large cost overruns on JWST. ESA then decided to proceed with a less costly modification of IXO, which became known as ATHENA. ATHENA was shortlisted for the first (L1) L-class Cosmic Vision selection in 2012, but lost to the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer; after some modifications ATHENA was selected in 2014 as the second (L2) mission
The final decision about rebooting the International X-ray Observatory took place on the 27 of June 2014. The selected science topic is "Hot and Energetic Universe" with an objective of answering to questions from astrophysics: How does ordinary matter assemble into the large-scale structures we see today? And how do black holes grow and shape the universe?
The science team was appointed on 16 July 2014. Initial vibration testing of a silicon pore optics mirror module took place in August 2014. ESA's Science Programme Committee will meet in 2019 for a full review and final approval of the project before construction to begin in the same year.
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