The K a , x-ray satellite structure of the heavy element Ta has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The experimental data were obtained with a high resolution curved crystal spectrometer during the bombardment of tantalum with 403 MeV nitrogen ions. The K a , line recorded while exciting Ta with 25 MeV protons was used to check the line profile and for calibration. Satellite energies were calculated with an atomic multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock program. Probabilities for the creation of vacancies in the K, L and M shells were computed in the semiclassical separated-atom perturbation theory. It is found that the observed K a , satellite structure can be explained quite well in terms of the semiclassical approximation.

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