Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI)

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Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI)
Masaru Matsuoka (Leader), Shigenori Komatsu,
Kenichi Torii, Mutsumi Sugizaki, Hiroshi Tomida,
Shiro Ueno, Yuji Shirasaki, Masaaki Sakano,
Weimin Yuan (NASDA), Nobuyuki Kawai, Atsumasa
Yoshida, Tatehiro Mihara, Hitoshi Negoro
(RIKEN), Hiroshi Tsunemi, Emi Miyata (Osaka
University)
MAXI achieves unprecedented sensitivity
MAXI has been selected as one of the first
payloads to be attached to Japan Experiment
Module (JEM-Kibo) of the International Space
Station (ISS). MAXI will scan the whole sky once
every orbit, 24 hours a day, and will determine
the position, the brightness, and the color of
every X-ray object brighter than 1 mCrab (a
conventional flux unit in X-ray astronomy).
Targets of MAXI
MAXI will be the first all-sky X-ray monitor to
expand our scope to extra- galactic objects. The
X-ray time- variability of about 1000
astronomical objects will be monitored on the
time scales ranging from a day to months during
the MAXI operation, two years at least. The
international astronomical community will be
swiftly informed of significant flux changes
detected with MAXI through the Internet, so that
they can make follow-up observations.
MAXI
Radiator for X-ray CCDs
Grapple Fixture for a robot arm
Electronics
Optical Star Sensor
77cm
80cm
Solid-state Slit Cameras (SSC) X-ray CCD
cameras
185cm
Gas Slit Cameras (GSC) X-ray gas counter cameras
Total weight 500 kg