Science with the constellation-X observatory

The Constellation X-ray Mission is a high throughput X-ray facilityemphasizing observations at high spectral resolution (E/\Delta E \sim300-3000), and broad energy bandpass (0.25-40 keV). Constellation-X willprovide a factor of nearly 100 increase in sensitivity over current highresolution X-ray spectroscopy missions. It is the X-ray astronomy equivalent oflarge ground-based optical telescopes such as the Keck Observatory and the ESOVery Large Telescope. When observations commence toward the end of next decade,Constellation-X will address many fundamental astrophysics questions such as:the formation and evolution of clusters of galaxies; constraining the baryoncontent of the Universe; determining the spin and mass of supermassive blackholes in AGN; and probing strong gravity in the vicinity of black holes.Comment: to appear in "After the Dark Ages: When Galaxies Were Young", eds. S.S. Holt and E.P. Smith, 4 pages, 1 figur