Abstract
The Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) aboard the AstroSat satellite is the first Indian X-ray telescope in space. It is a modest size X-ray telescope with a charge coupled device (CCD) camera in the focal plane, which provides X-ray images in the \(\sim \)0.3–8.0 keV band. A forte of SXT is in providing undistorted spectra of relatively bright X-ray sources, in which it excels over some current large CCD-based X-ray telescopes. Here, we highlight some of the published spectral and timing results obtained using the SXT data to demonstrate the capabilities and overall performance of this telescope.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agrawal P. C. 2006, Adv. Space Res. 38, 2989
Baby B. E., Agrawal V. K., Ramadevi M. C. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 497, 1197
Beri A., Naik S., Singh K. P. et al. 2021, MNRAS, 500, 565
Bhargava Y., Belloni T., Bhattacharya D., Misra R. 2019, MNRAS, 488, 720
Bhargava Y., Rao A. R., Singh K. P. et al. 2017, ApJ, 849, 141
Bhattacharyya S. 2010, Adv. Space Res. 45, 949
Chakraborty S., Navale N., Ratheesh A., Bhattacharyya S. 2020, MNRAS, 498, 5873
Chandra A. D., Roy J., Agrawal P. C., Choudhury M. 2020, MNRAS, 495, 2664
Chatterjee R., Roychowdhury A., Chandra S., Sinha A. 2018, ApJ, 859, L21
Chaudhury K., Chitnis V. R., Rao A. R. et al. 2018, MNRAS, 478, 4830
Goswami P., Sinha A., Chandra S. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 492, 796
Gudel M., Naze Y. 2009, A&ARv, 17, 309
Jaisawal G. K., Naik S., Ho W. C. G. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 498, 4830
King A., Lasota J.-P., Kluzniak W. 2017, MNRAS, 468, L59
Lalitha S., Schmitt J. H. M. M., Singh K. P. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 498, 3658
Malu S., Sriram K., Agrawal V. K. 2020, MNRAS, 499, 2214
Maqbool B., Mudambi S. P., Misra R. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 486, 2964
Middleton M. 2016, in Bambi C. ed., Astrophysics of Black Holes - From fundamental aspects to latest developments (ASSL, Springer)
Mudambi S. P., Maqbool B., Misra R. et al. 2020b, ApJ, 889, L17
Mudambi S. P., Rao A., Gudennavar S. B., Misra R., Bubbly S. G. 2020a, MNRAS, 498, 4404
Mukerje K., Anti H. M., Katoch T. 2020, ApJ, 897, 73
Netzer H. 2015, ARA&A, 53, 365
Pahari M., Bhattacharyya S., Rao A. R., et al. 2018a, ApJ, 867, 86
Pahari M., Yadav J. S., Chauhan J. V. et al. 2018b, ApJ, 853, L11
Roy J., Agrawal P. C., Singari B., Misra R. 2020, RAA, 20, 155
Schaefer B. E. 2010, ApJS, 187, 275
Seetha S., Megala S. 2017, Curr. Sci. 113, 579
Sharma R., Beri A., Sanna A., Dutta A. 2020, MNRAS, 492, 4361
Singh K. P., Bhattacharya D. 2017, Curr. Sci. 113, 602
Singh K. P., Dewangan G. C., Chandra S. et al. 2017b, Curr. Sci. 113, 587
Singh K. P., Girish V., Pavana M. et al. 2021, MNRAS, 501, 36
Singh K. P., Stewart G. C., Chandra S. et al. 2016, in Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 9905, 99051E
Singh K. P., Stewart G. C., Westergaard N. J. et al. 2017a, JApA, 38, 29
Singh K. P., Tandon S. N., Agrawal P. C. et al. 2014, in Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 9144, 91441S
Sreehari H., Nandi A., Das S. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 499, 5891
Sreehari H., Ravishankar B. T., Iyer N. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 487, 928
Sridhar N., Bhattacharyya S., Chandra S., Antia H. M. 2019, MNRAS, 487, 4221
Torres M. A. P., Casares J., Jimenez-Ibarra F. et al. 2020, ApJ, 893, L37
Torres M. A. P., Casares J., Jimenez-Ibarra F. et al. 2019, ApJ, 882, L21
Walter R., Lutovinov A. A., Bozzo E., Tsygankov S. S. 2015, A&ARv, 23, 2
Wolter H. 1952, Ann. Phys., 10, 94
Acknowledgements
The publications mentioned here used the data from the AstroSat mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), archived at the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC). The works mentioned here were performed utilizing the calibration data-bases and auxiliary analysis tools developed, maintained and distributed by the AstroSat-SXT team with members from various institutions in India and abroad, and the SXT Payload Operation Center (POC) at the TIFR, Mumbai (https://www.tifr.res.in/~astrosat_sxt/index.html). SXT data were processed and verified by the SXT POC. The authors thank Mayukh Pahari, Navin Sridhar, Aru Beri and Lalitha Sairam for providing some of the figures.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is part of the Special Issue on “AstroSat: Five Years in Orbit”.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bhattacharyya, S., Singh, K.P., Stewart, G. et al. Science with the AstroSat Soft X-ray telescope: An overview. J Astrophys Astron 42, 17 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-020-09678-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-020-09678-z