A

David

Darling

BBXRT (Broad-Band X-Ray Telescope)

BBXRT

BBXRT in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle.


The Broad-Band X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT) was an instrument that formed part of the Astro-1 payload. Its flight gave the first opportunity for making X-ray observations over a broad energy range (0.3–12 keV) with a moderate energy resolution (typically 90 eV and 150 eV at 1 and 6 keV, respectively). This energy resolution, coupled with an extremely low detector background, made BBXRT a powerful tool for the study of continuum and line emission from cosmic sources. In spite of some technical hitches during the mission with the instrument's pointing system, BBXRT successfully performed around 160 observations of some 80 celestial sources including clusters of galaxies, active galaxies, supernova remnants, X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, and the X-ray background.