B-MINE, the balloon-borne microcalorimeter nuclear line explorer
- Autori: Silver, E.; Schnopper, H.; Jones, C.; Forman, W.; Bandler, S.; Murray, S.; Romaine, S.; Slane, P.; Grindlay, J.; Madden, N.; Beeman, J.; Haller, E.; Smith, D.; Barbera, M.; Collura, A.; Christensen, F.; Ramsey, B.; Woosley, S.; Diehl, R.; Tucker, G.; Fabregat, J.; Reglero, V.; Gimenez, A.
- Anno di pubblicazione: 2001
- Tipologia: eedings
- OA Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10447/216267
Abstract
B-MINE is a concept for a balloon mission designed to probe the deepest regions of a supernova explosion by detecting Ti-44 emission at 68 keV with spatial and spectral resolutions that are sufficient to determine the extent and velocity distribution of the Ti-44 emitting region. The payload introduces the concept of focusing optics and microcalorimeter spectroscopy to nuclear line emission astrophysics. B-MINE has a thin, plastic foil telescope multilayered to maximize the reflectivity in a 20 keV band centered at 68 keV and a microcalorimeter array optimized for the same energy band. This combination provides a reduced background, an energy resolution of 50 eV and a 3sigma sensitivity in 10(6) s of 3.3 x 10(-7) ph cm(-2) s(-1) at 68 keV. During the course of a long duration balloon flight, B-MINE could carry out a detailed study of the Ti-44 emission line centroid and width in CAS A.