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    Fact Sheet

    Fact Sheet:
     
    The European Space Agency's X-ray Observatory, EXOSAT, was operational from May 1983 to April 1986. During that time, EXOSAT made 1780 observations of a wide variety of objects, including active galactic nuclei, stellar coronae, cataclysmic variables, white dwarfs, X-ray binaries, clusters of galaxies, and supernova remnants. Natural decay of the orbit caused the satellite to enter the atmosphere on 6 May 1986.

    Mission Objectives

    The original objective of the EXOSAT mission was to use lunar occultation to obtain precise positional information for the relatively small number of X-ray sources then known. The mission made a number of significant scientific advances, including:
    • Discovery of the quasi period oscillations in LMXRB and X-ray pulsars 
    • Comprehensive study of AGN variability
    • Observing LMXRB and CV over many orbital periods
    • Measuring iron lines in galactic and extra galactic sources
    • Obtaining low-energy high-resolution spectra

    Mission Name

    EXOSAT = European X-ray Observing Satellite

    Spacecraft

    EXOSAT was the European Space Agency's first three-axis stabilised spacecraft, with all three instrument packages co-aligned.

    Instruments

    The three instrument packages gave coverage between 0.05 and 50 keV. The LE (Low-energy imaging telescopes) had the highest sensitivity.

    Name  

    Type

    Range

    Area

    delta E /E

    LE

    2 Telescopes + CMA or PSD

    0.05-2 keV

    10 cm2

    1 <0.25 keV

    ME

    Medium Energy Proporsional Counter

    1-20/5-50 keV

    800-1600 cm2

    21% (6 keV)

    GSPC

    Gas Scintillation Proportional Counter

    2-16/2-32 keV

    100 cm2

    10% (6 keV)

    Orbit

    EXOSAT was placed in a 90 hours highly-eccentric Earth orbit, quite different from that of any previous X-ray astronomy satellite. The initial apogee was 191 000 km and the perigee 350 km. The science instruments were operated above 50 000 km, outside the earth's radiation belts. This allowed scientific operations for up to 76 hr per 90 hr orbit, without interruption.

    Operations Centre

    Ground station: Villafranca. Visible 76 hours out of 91 hour orbit. Scientific operations: European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt.


    Last Update: 18 Mar 2013

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