Bursts in the HETE-2 catalogue

We have studied a set of GRBs detected by HETE-2 satellite with special focus on low-energy part of the spectrum. Results of data reduction procedures of different members of the HETE collaboration were combined with other publicly available information creating a concise catalogue. A more detailed analysis of lightcurves of the prompt emission was performed using data from FREGATE instrument.     

Progress of Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE) Mission

SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission is a joint ESA-CAS space science project. The working orbit is a 19 R_e 5000 km HEO with 4 scientific instruments:Soft X-ray Imager(SXI), Ultra-Violet Imager (UVI), Magnetometer (MAG) and Light Ion Analyzer (LIA). SMILE aims to understand the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere through the images of SXI and UVI and in-situ measurement from LIA and MAG. After the kick-off in 2016, the SMILE project went to Phase A study. The mission adoption is scheduled for November 2018, with a target launch date in 2022-2023. In this paper, the background of the mission, scientific objectives, the design and characteristics of scientific instruments and the mission outline will be introduced in details.      

Determination of confidence contours for gamma ray burst source locations

The method for determining gamma-ray burst source regions which has produced the best results until now is long-baseline wavefront triangulation. The direction of the source of the gamma rays is derived from the delay in the arrival time of the burst at widely spaced detectors on at least three spacecraft. An exact method to compute confidence contours for the source error boxes is given in the present paper.     

JUXTA: A new probe of X-ray emission from the Jupiter system

For the future Japanese exploration mission of the Jupiter’s magnetosphere (JMO: Jupiter Magnetospheric Orbiter), a unique instrument named JUXTA (Jupiter X-ray Telescope Array) is being developed. It aims at the first in-situ measurement of X-ray emission associated with Jupiter and its neighborhood. Recent observations with Earth-orbiting satellites have revealed various X-ray emission from the Jupiter system. X-ray sources include Jupiter’s aurorae, disk emission, inner radiation belts, the Galilean satellites and the Io plasma torus. X-ray imaging spectroscopy can be a new probe to reveal rotationally driven activities, particle acceleration and Jupiter–satellite binary system. JUXTA is composed of an ultra-light weight X-ray telescope based on micromachining technology and a radiation-hard semiconductor pixel detector. It covers 0.3–2 keV with the energy resolution of <100 eV at 0.6 keV. Because of proximity to Jupiter (∼30 Jovian radii at periapsis), the image resolution of <5 arcmin and the on-axis effective area of >3 cm² at 0.6 keV allow extremely high photon statistics and high resolution observations.