XRASE: The X-Ray Spectroscopic Explorer

The X-Ray Spectroscopic Explorer (XRASE) has a unique combination of featur es that will make it possible to address many of NASA's scientific goals. T hese include how galaxy clusters form, the physics and chemistry of the ISM , the heating of stellar coronae, the amount and content of intergalactic b aryonic matter, the mass of black holes and the formation of disks and jets in AGN and galactic binaries. XRASE has a thin foil, multilayered telescop e with a large collecting area up to 10 keV, especially in the Fe K alpha r egion (1100 cm(2)). Its microcalorimeter array combines high energy resolut ion (7 eV at 6 keV) and efficiency with a field-of-view of 26 arcmin(2) . A deep orbit allows for long, continuous observations. Monitoring instrument s in the optical (WOM-X), UV (TAUVEX) and hard X-RAY (GRAM) bands will offe r exceptional opportunities to make simultaneous multi-wavelength observati ons.