Observing the effects of strong gravity with future X-ray missions


Abstract in English

Spectroscopy of the broad iron iron with ASCA and BeppoSAX has up opened the innermost regions of accreting black hole systems to detailed study. In this contribution, I discuss how observations with future X-ray missions will extend these studies and all us to observationally address issues which are currently only in the realm of the theorists. In particular, high-throughput spectroscopy with XMM and, eventually, Constellation-X will allow the full diagnostic power of iron line variability to be realized. Instabilities of the inner accretion flow, the geometry of the variable X-ray source, and the black hole mass and spin will all be open to study. Eventually, X-ray interferometry will allow direct imaging of the black hole region in nearby active galaxies, thereby providing the ultimate probe of black hole astrophysics.

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