EXIST

Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope

This webpage is being kept for archival purposes only.
It may be updated in the future, but it is not currently being maintained.

EXIST on International Space Station

EXIST mounted on the ISS above the Earth

A full-scale version of EXIST on the International Space Station (ISS) would include 8 m2 total area in 2 large coded aperture telescopes with combined 80° x 160° field of view. EXIST-ISS could be mounted on the International Space Station (ISS), as shown above. It would provide full-sky imaging each orbit and achieve the ultimate hard x-ray survey sensitivity: a factor of ~1000 better than the only previous (HEAO-A4; 1979) all sky survey.

A Few Overview Figures

Est. BG spectra (J. Hong). Major components are cosmic diffuse, cosmic rays, and spallation. Full-array BG rate ~25000 cts/s. Sensitivity of EXIST and other surveys.
Sensitivity vs energy for 3 telescopes. "20° x 25°" should read "180° x 75° fully coded". Approximate 1-day coverage plotted in Galactic coordinates. Exposure is greatest at orbital poles. This is for the ISS orbit, with inclination ~52°, which smoothes out much of the nonuniformity.