Abstract

The primary scientific mission of the Black Hole Finder Probe (BHFP), part of the NASA Beyond Einstein program, is to survey the local Universe for black holes over a wide range of mass and accretion rate. One approach to such a survey is a hard X‐ray coded‐aperture imaging mission operating in the 10–600 keV energy band. The development of new inorganic scintillator materials provides improved performance that is well suited to the BHFP science requirements. Detection planes formed with these materials coupled with a new generation of readout devices represent a major advancement in the performance capabilities of scintillator‐based gamma cameras. Here, we discuss the Coded Aperture Survey Telescope for Energetic Radiation (CASTER), a concept that represents a BHFP based on the use of the latest scintillator technology.

Department

Space Science Center, Physics

Publication Date

2006

Journal Title

AIP Conference Proceedings

Publisher

AIP Publishing

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2207980

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Rights

© 2006 American Institute of Physics

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