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To give students and
teachers a head start, here is a brief summary of what Astro-E2
will be able to study and possible projects.
Some of the key questions
that Astro-E2 will be able to answer are:
Where and
when are the chemical elements created? Astro-E2 can probe the amount
of oxygen, silicon, iron and other elements in nearby stars, supernova
remnants in our Galaxy and its neighbors, and in distant clusters of
galaxies. What
happens when matter falls onto a black hole? Astro-E2 can measure the
velocities of matter around a black hole in a binary star system, or at
the center of a galaxy. How
does nature heat gas to temperatures where that gas will emit X-rays?
The sensitive measurements of Astro-E2 may help scientists explain how
gases are heated to X-ray temperatures in the corona of a star, or how
(how much) cosmic ray particles are accelerated in young supernova
remnants.
Below are some examples of
projects you could undertake. There are many more!
Newborn Stars
Astronomers have been
intently studying the development of newborn stars: how they are
formed, what they form into, how sometimes stars split off into two
stars. By studying newborn stars, scientists can learn even more about
how planets are born.
Supernova remnants
Supernova remnants (SNRs)
can be perfect targets for a mission looking at line-rich spectra.
These lines can come from elements created and ejected in the supernova
explosion. By looking at what elements are detected in the Astro-E2
spectrum, astronomers can determine what type of explosion was at the
origin of the SNR and what type of star produced it (a massive star or
a white dwarf).
Black Holes
Only the most massive
stars evolve into black holes. While scientists know a lot about the
theory of black holes, they have never observed a black hole directly.
They can however observe the effects black holes have on their
neighbors and their surroundings. Astro-E2 can in fact look very close
to the surface of a black hole and monitor what happens to matter when
it falls into the black hole.
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)
Astronomers think that
there are super-massive black holes at the center of most galaxies.
Line emissions coming from nuclei of active galaxies are distorted in a
way one would expect from an accretion disk around a black hole. The
shape of the line depends on a number of parameters, including the spin
of the accretion disk around the black hole, so Astro-E2 offers the
first direct method to identify and quantify a black hole.
Clusters of Galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are
the largest systems in the universe. Astro-E2 can investigate how they
formed and test the different theories of their evolution. The lines
detected by Astro-E2 from sources emitting from clusters of galaxies
will help form theories about the clusters and those dynamics.
Continue to How to enter the competition.
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