The Maxim Pathfinder Mission: X-ray Iamging at 100 Micro-Arcseconds

摘要

Ultra-high resolution imaging in the x-ray has the potential to revolutionize the way astronomers view the heavens. Through the use of interferometry at grazing incidence we can image the x-ray sky at the milli-arcsecond (or better) levle. In this paper we describe the baseline desing of the Maxim Pathfinder Mission, which will be the first interferometric x-ray observatory whose goal is to image the sky at 100 micro-arcsecond resolution in the 0.5-1.5 keV band with about 100 cm~2 of collecting area. This resolution is adequate to image the coronae of nearby stars and the accretio ndisks of quasars.