Magnetic Shielding of Soft Protons in Future X-Ray Telescopes: The Case of the ATHENA Wide Field Imager
Magnetic Shielding of Soft Protons in Future X-Ray Telescopes: The Case of the ATHENA Wide Field Imager
Abstract Both interplanetary space and Earth’s magnetosphere are populated by low-energy (≤300 keV) protons that are potentially able to scatter on the reflecting surface of the Wolter-I optics of X-ray focusing telescopes and reach the focal plane. This phenomenon, depending on the X-ray instrumentation, can dramatically increase the background level, …