The XIS is an X-ray Imaging Spectrometer system, consisting of state-of-the-art charge-coupled devices (CCDs) optimized for X-ray detection, camera bodies, and control electronics. Four sets of XIS sensors are placed at the focal planes of the grazing-incidence, nested thin-foil mirrors (XRT: X-Ray Telescope) onboard the Suzaku satellite. Three of the XIS sensors have front-illuminated CCDs, while the other has a back-illuminated CCD. Coupled with the XRT, the energy range of 0.2-12 keV with energy resolution of 130 eV at 5.9 keV, and a field of view of 18 × 18 are realized. Since the Suzaku launch on 2005 July 10, the XIS has been functioning well.

High-sensitivity wide-band X-ray spectroscopy is the key feature of the Suzaku X-ray observatory, launched on 2005 July 10. This paper summarizes the spacecraft, in-orbit performance, operations, and data processing that are related to observations. The scientific instruments, the high-throughput X-ray telescopes, X-ray CCD cameras, non-imaging hard X-ray detector are also described.

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We have systematically investigated the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) spectra of 12 early-type galaxies. This paper presents the global spectral properties of these systems based on a larger sample than in any previous ASCA study. The X-ray spectra were uniformly Ðtted by a two-component model consisting of hard X-rays from thermal emission with a temperature of about 10 keV or from a power law with index 1.8, plus soft X-rays from a thin thermal plasma with temperature ranging from 0.3 to 1 keV. The X-ray luminosities of the hard component are found to be proportional to the blue-band luminosities, while those of the soft component show large scatter with no clear correlation. The metal abundances determined from the soft component are systematically lower than solar, with a mean value of about 0.3 solar. We examine the relationships between the temperature and volume emission measure and between the gas temperature and the stellar velocity dispersion. The volume emission measures for early-type galaxies plotted as a function of the gas temperature are well below the extrapolated line found in clusters of galaxies, indicating that early-type galaxies are relatively gas poor compared with galaxy clusters. The ratio of the stellar kinetic energy per unit mass to the thermal energy of the hot gas per unit mass is less than unity. We found no systematic relation-(b spec ) ship between X-ray properties and environment, suggesting that the interaction between interstellar matter and the intracluster medium is not strong.

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