The NASA x JAXA XRISM spacecraft will use a microcalorimeter spectrometer, named Resolve, to study the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity. The mission is set to launch on August 26, 2023 aboard a JAXA H-IIA rocket.
Resolve will achieve this by creating spectra, or measurements of light’s intensity over a range of energies, for X-rays from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. Put simply, it measures minuscule temperature changes created when an X-ray hits its 6-by-6-pixel detector. The detector needs to cool down to around minus 460 Fahrenheit (minus 270 Celsius), just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, to measure that tiny increase and determine the X-ray’s energy. This instrument actually reaches its operating temperature after a multistage mechanical cooling process inside a refrigerator-sized container of liquid helium.
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Equipped with an X-ray micro-calorimeter and X-ray CCD camera, identical to those on Hitomi, specializing in soft X-ray imaging spectroscopy. XRISM’s aim is to develop the world of high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, the door to which was opened by Hitomi,” according to JAXA.
