What Is Suzaku?
Suzaku is a joint Japanese-US satellite whose mission is to study
X-rays emitted by objects in the universe, such as stars, galaxies,
and black holes. X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, and
many objects in our universe emit them. If you are unfamiliar with electromagnetic
radiation, X-rays, or any topic in X-ray astronomy and would like to
learn more, see our
in the Science section of
this web site.
The Japanese space agency, ISAS, had launched four previous satellites
for X-ray astronomy over the last 25 years. Each one is better than
the previous one! Suzaku became the fifth, after the
successful launch on July 10, 2005!
The Suzaku satellite has instruments for low energy
X-rays and one for high energy X-rays. They can detect faint sources
of X-rays. Also, one of the instruments is excellent at distinguishing
very small differences in X-ray energies. In scientists' words,
Suzaku is designed for "broad-band, high-sensitivity,
high-resolution" spectroscopy. This capability will allow
astronomers to answer questions in X-ray astronomy that they have not
been able to before.
