Paper 13093-91
Paper 13093-91
BlackCAT: an upcoming soft X-ray coded aperture telescope on a 6U CubeSat
18 June 2024 • 13:40 - 14:00 Japan Standard Time | Room G414/415, North - 4F
Abstract
BlackCAT is an X-ray coded-aperture-telescope on a 6U CubeSat platform that is expected to launch in 2025. It is designed for observations of X-ray sources and new transients in the 0.5–20 keV band. The instrument will have a wide field of view (0.85 steradian) and be capable of catching gamma ray bursts from the distant universe, galactic transients, flares from blazars, and monitoring the X-ray sky for rare and exciting events including gravitational-wave X-ray counterparts, magnetar flares, supernova shock breakouts, and tidal disruption events. The mission will thus function as a multiwavelength/messenger complement to present and future facilities, while providing rapid notifications. Silicon X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors will form the focal plane array. In addition to carrying out its science programs, BlackCAT will also serve as a pathfinder for future economical sky monitoring networks. An overview of mission design, science, and status will be presented.
Presenter
The Pennsylvania State Univ. (United States)
Abraham D. Falcone is an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Pennsylvania State University. He leads research in fields ranging from X-ray and gamma-ray instrumentation to high-energy astrophysics of active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. He has authored more than 200 refereed publications. He is the PI of BlackCAT, and he is a member of the Swift team that was awarded the Bruno Rossi Prize in 2007, as well as a VERITAS collaboration member and a collaborator on multiple future X-ray mission development efforts including Arcus, AXIS, Gamow, and Lynx.