Making mock HUBS observations with IllustrisTNG

Abstract

The Hot Universe Baryon Surveyor (HUBS) is a satellite mission that is proposed to probe “hidden” baryons in the universe and thus to fill a void in observational astronomy that seriously affects our understand of galaxy formation and evolution. The HUBS payload is highly optimized for detecting diffuse X-ray emission from the baryons, with the combination of large field of view and high spectral resolution. To assess the scientific capabilities of HUBS, we created mock observations with data from a state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulation (IllustrisTNG). The targets include systems that are representative of galaxies, galaxy groups, and galaxy clusters at various redshifts. We generated the X-ray spectra and images of the selected sources from the mock observations, taking into account galactic foreground emission, X-ray emission from cosmologically distant background sources, as well as emission from other sources along the lines of sight. The results from analyzing the mock observations show that the assumed design of HUBS is appropriate for achieving its primary scientific objectives. In this paper, we present the results and discuss issues related to observing strategies.