Andrew Balko with Glenn Starkman

Controlling Eclipses to Improve X-Ray Angular Resolution

To improve X-ray angular resolution of existing and future telescopes, it is possible to use the properties of natural eclipses.  An occulting satellite would facilitate the study of a wide variety of sources especially in the X-ray spectrum.  The eclipses cast by an X-ray occulting steerable satellite would overcome the limitations of natural eclipses by being regulated and reproducible. The gains in angular resolution using this method would be significant in future space observatories and may be applied to other wavelengths, though X-ray interferometry should make vast improvements in the field in the long term.  A type of Eclipse Mapping Method involving optimization techniques is implemented with a conjugate gradient algorithm, supplemented by laboratory test-bed experiments in order to help determine the usefulness of such an endeavor.