2011/04/15 by Jan-Willem den Herder, J. W. den Herder, L. Piro +203
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Billion years #COSMIC cancer database #Cosmic time #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Physics #Redshift #Spectral line #Spectral resolution #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Structure formation #Universe #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10686-011-9224-7
published as Exp Astron (2012) 34, 519 · 34 pages, 13 figures. ESA Cosmic Vision medium-class mission (M3) proposal. Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy. Including minor corrections in the author list
arxiv created 2011/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2011/05/12 · arxiv updated 2012/10/17 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
ORIGIN is a proposal for the M3 mission call of ESA aimed at the study of metal creation from the epoch of cosmic dawn. Using high-spectral resolution in the soft X-ray band, ORIGIN will be able to identify the physical conditions of all abundant elements between C and Ni to red-shifts of z=10, and beyond. The mission will answer questions such as: When were the first metals created? How does the cosmic metal content evolve? Where do most of the metals reside in the Universe? What is the role of metals in structure formation and evolution? To reach out to the early Universe ORIGIN will use Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) to study their local environments in their host galaxies. This requires the capability to slew the satellite in less than a minute to the GRB location. By studying the chemical composition and properties of clusters of galaxies we can extend the range of exploration to lower redshifts (z ~ 0.2). For this task we need a high-resolution spectral imaging instrument with a large field of view. Using the same instrument, we can also study the so far only partially detected baryons in the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM). The less dense part of the WHIM will be studied using absorption lines at low redshift in the spectra for GRBs.