DOCSLIB.ORG

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory & First Light

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory & First Light CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the third in NASA's family of Great Observatories that includes the Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. TRW is the prime contractor for the spacecraft. Key subcontractors include Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, and Raytheon Optical Systems, Inc. The scientific instruments were built by teams from MIT, Pennsylvania State University, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the Laboratory for Space Research in the Netherlands, and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, MA. The Chandra X-ray Observatory & First Light Table of Contents I. Press Guide to Chandra Contacts II. Fact Sheets & Biographies A. Fact Sheets: 1. Cassiopeia A, CXC 2. PKS 0637-752, CXC 3. Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, CXC 4. Exploring the Invisible Universe, MSFC 5. Chandra Quick Facts, MSFC B. Biographies: 1. Dr. Robert Kirshner, Associate Director, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 2. Dr. Harvey Tananbaum, Director, Chandra X-ray Center 3. Dr. Edward J. Weiler, Associate Administrator for Space Science, NASA 4. Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf, Project Scientist, Chandra X-ray Observatory A PRESS GUIDE TO CHANDRA CONTACTS Dr. Wallace Tucker, Chandra Science Spokesperson. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 617.496.7998; FAX: 617.495.7356 e-mail: [email protected] KEY CHANDRA SCIENTISTS: Dr. Harvey Tananbaum, Director, Chandra X-ray Observatory Center (CXC) Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 617.495. 7248 FAX: 617.495.7356 email: [email protected] Dr. Claude R. Canizares, Associate Director, Chandra X-ray Observatory Center Principal Investigator, High Energy Transmission Grating Center for Space Research Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 617.253.7501 FAX: 617.253.3111 email: [email protected] Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf, Chandra Project Scientist Chief Scientist for X-Ray Astronomy Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 205.544.7740 FAX: 205.544.7754 e-mail: [email protected] Dr. Roger Brissenden, Program Manager, Chandra X-ray Observatory Center Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 617 495 7387 FAX: 617.496.7067 email: [email protected] Dr. Gordon Garmire, Principal Investigator, AXAF CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) Penn State Univ., University Park, PA 814. 865.1117 FAX: 814.865.2977 email: [email protected] Dr. Stephen S. Murray, Principal Investigator, High Resolution Camera (HRC) Associate Director, High Energy Astrophysics Division Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 617.495.7205 FAX: 617.495.7356 e-mail: [email protected] Dr. Albert Brinkman, Principal Investigator, Low Energy Transmission Grating Space Research Organization of Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] NASA CONTACTS Dr. Edward J. Weiler, Associate Administrator for Space Science Code S NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546 202.358.1409 FAX: 202.358.3092 email: [email protected] Dr. Alan N. Bunner Science Program Director, Structure and Evolution of the Universe NASA Headquarters, Washington D.C. 20546 Phone 202.358.0364 FAX: 202.358.3096 email: [email protected] Donald Savage, Public Affairs Officer Office of Space Science NASA Headquarters, Washington D.C. Phone 202.358.1727 FAX: 202.358.3093 email: [email protected] Dave Drachlis, Media Relations Office Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Phone 256.544.6538 FAX: 256.881.9302 email: [email protected] Fact Sheet CASSIOPEIA A Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is the remnant of a massive star that exploded about 300 years ago. The X-ray image shows an expanding shell of hot gas produced by the explosion. This gaseous shell is about 10 light years in diameter, and has a temperature of about 50 million degrees. The material from the explosion is rushing outward at supersonic speeds in excess of ten million miles per hour. As this matter crashes into gas that surrounds the former star, shock waves analogous to awesome sonic booms heat the gas and heat the ejected matter. The Cas A Supernova A supernova occurs when a massive star has used up its nuclear fuel and the pressure drops in the central core of the star. The matter in the core is crushed by gravity to higher and higher densities, and temperatures reach billions of degrees. Under these extreme conditions, nuclear reactions occur violently and catastrophically reversing the collapse. A thermonuclear shock wave races through the now expanding stellar debris, fusing lighter elements into heavier ones and producing a brilliant visual outburst. About every fifty years in our galaxy, a massive star explodes. The shell of matter thrown off by the supernova creates a bubble of multi-million degree gas called a supernova remnant. Cas A is a prime example. The hot gas will expand and produce X-rays for thousands of years. The nature of the explosion that produced Cas A has been an enigma. Although radio, optical and x-ray observations of the remnant indicate that it was a powerful event, the visual brightness of the outburst was much less than a normal supernova. Apparently Cas A was produced by the explosion of an unusual massive star that had previously ejected most of its outer layers. Probing Cas A Mysteries with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory Chandra's spectacularly vivid images of Cas A allow scientists to trace the dynamics of the remnant and its collision with any material ejected by the star before it exploded. Chandra detectors provide scientists with precise x-ray spectra– measurements of the energies of individual x-rays–from the Cas A remnant. These measurements make it possible to identify which heavy elements are present and in what quantities. Chandra's observations should help astronomers to resolve the long-standing mystery as to the nature and origin of Cas A. A related mystery is whether the explosion that produced Cas A left behind a neutron star, black hole, or nothing at all. This "First Light" Chandra image of Cas A shows a bright object near the center of the remnant! Longer observations with Chandra can determine if this is the long sought for neutron star or black hole. Importance of Supernovae The study of remnants of exploded stars, or supernovae, is essential for our understanding of the origin of life on Earth. The cloud of gas and dust that collapsed to form the sun, Earth and other planets was composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of heavier elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and iron. The only place where these and other heavy elements necessary for life are made, is deep in the interior of a massive star. There they remain until a catastrophic explosion spreads them throughout space. Supernovae are the creative flashes that renew the galaxy. They seed the interstellar gas with heavy elements, heat it with the energy of their radiation, stir it up with the force of their blast waves and cause new stars to form. Fact Sheet PKS 0637-752 PKS 0637-72 is so distant that we see it as it was 6 billion years ago. It is a luminous quasar that radiates with the power of 10 trillion suns from a region smaller than our solar system. The source of this prodigious energy is believed to be a supermassive black hole. Radio observations of PKS 0637-752 show that it has an extended radio jet that stretches across several hundred thousand light years. Chandra's x-ray image reveals a powerful x-ray jet of similar size that is probably due to a beam of extremely high-energy particles. Quasars Quasars are distant, energetic objects. They are compact intense sources of X-rays as well as visible light, and can be brighter than hundreds of galaxies put together. Through an optical telescope quasars look star-like. It wasn't until the 1950's, when radio astronomy was first developed, that astronomers realized these were extra-galactic objects that were emitting enormous amounts of radio energy. This important discovery caused them to be named quasars, short for "Quasi-stellar radio sources". Since then, many quasars have been discovered that produce little or no radio emission. They are sometimes called quasi-stellar objects or QSO's, but the name quasars is generally used to describe both types of objects. The power of a quasar depends on the mass of its central black hole and the rate at which it swallows or accretes matter. Almost all galaxies, including our own, are thought to contain a supermassive black hole in their centers. Quasars represent the extreme cases where the rate of accretion is so high that the energy output due to the infalling matter is a thousand times greater than the galaxy itself. One of the most intriguing features of supermassive black holes is that they do not suck up all the matter that falls within their sphere of influence. Most of the matter falls inexorably toward the black hole, but some explodes away from the black hole in high energy jets that move at near the speed of light. Radio observations have revealed that these jets are a common feature of quasars. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory Reveals Powerful X-ray Jet in PKS 0637-752 The x-ray jet observed for the first time by Chandra in PKS 0637-752, is a dramatic example of a cosmic jet. It has blasted outward from the quasar into intergalactic space for a distance of at least 200,000 light years! The jet's presence means that electromagnetic forces are continually accelerating electrons to extremely high energies over enormous distances. Chandra observations, combined with radio observations, should provide insight into this important cosmic energy conversion process.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Planck Satellite and the Cosmic Microwave Background
    The Cosmic Microwave Background, Dark Matter and Dark Energy Anthony Lasenby, Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory and Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge Overview The Cosmic Microwave Background — exciting new results from the Planck Satellite Context of the CMB =) addressing key questions about the Big Bang and the Universe, including Dark Matter and Dark Energy Planck Satellite and planning for its observations have been a long time in preparation — first meetings in 1993! UK has been intimately involved Two instruments — the LFI (Low — e.g. Cambridge is the Frequency Instrument) and the HFI scientific data processing (High Frequency Instrument) centre for the HFI — RAL provided the 4K Cooler The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) So what is the CMB? Anywhere in empty space at the moment there is radiation present corresponding to what a blackbody would emit at a temperature of ∼ 2:74 K (‘Blackbody’ being a perfect emitter/absorber — furnace with a small opening is a good example - needs perfect thermodynamic equilibrium) CMB spectrum is incredibly accurately black body — best known in nature! COBE result on this showed CMB better than its own reference b.b. within about 9 minutes of data! Universe History Radiation was emitted in the early universe (hot, dense conditions) Hot means matter was ionised Therefore photons scattered frequently off the free electrons As universe expands it cools — eventually not enough energy to keep the protons and electrons apart — they History of the Universe: superluminal inflation, particle plasma,
    [Show full text]
  • Coryn Bailer-Jones Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg
    What will Gaia do for the disk? Coryn Bailer-Jones Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg IAU Symposium 254, Copenhagen June 2008 Acknowledgements: DPAC, ESA, Astrium 1 Gaia in a nutshell • high accuracy astrometry (parallaxes, proper motions) • radial velocities, optical spectrophotometry • 5D (some 6D) phase space survey • all sky survey to G=20 (1 billion objects) • formation, structure and evolution of the Galaxy • ESA mission for launch in late 2011 2 Gaia capabilities Hipparcos Gaia Magnitude limit 12.4 G = 20.0 No. sources 120 000 1 000 000 000 quasars 0 1 million galaxies 0 10 million Astrometric accuracy ~ 1000 μas 12-25 μas at G=15 100-300 μas at G=20 Photometry 2 bands spectra 330-1000 nm Radial velocities none 1-10 km/s to G=17 Target selection input catalogue real-time onboard selection 3 How the accuracy varies • astrometric errors dominated by photon statistics • parallax error: σ(ϖ) ~ 1/√flux ~ distance, d for fixed MV • fractional parallax error: σ(ϖ)/ϖ ~ d2 • fractional distance error: fde ~ d2 • transverse velocity accuracy: σ(v) ~ d2 • Example accuracy • K giant at 6 kpc (G=15): fde = 2%, σ(v) = 1 km/s • G dwarf at 2 kpc (G=16.5): fde = 8%, σ(v) = 0.4 km/s 4 Distance statistics 8kpc At larger distances may use spectroscopic parallaxes 100 000 stars with fde <0.1% 11 million stars with fde <1% panther-observatory.com NGC4565 from Image: 150 million stars with fde <10% 5 Payload overview 6 Instruments 7 Radial velocity spectrograph • R=11 500 • CaII triplet (848-874 nm) • more detailed APE for V < 14 (still millions of stars) 8 Spectrophotometry Figure: Anthony Brown Anthony Figure: Dispersion: 7-15 nm/pixel (red), 4-32 nm/pixel (blue) 9 Stellar parameters • Infer via pattern recognition (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Precollimator for X-Ray Telescope (Stray-Light Baffle) Mindrum Precision, Inc Kurt Ponsor Mirror Tech/SBIR Workshop Wednesday, Nov 2017
    Mindrum.com Precollimator for X-Ray Telescope (stray-light baffle) Mindrum Precision, Inc Kurt Ponsor Mirror Tech/SBIR Workshop Wednesday, Nov 2017 1 Overview Mindrum.com Precollimator •Past •Present •Future 2 Past Mindrum.com • Space X-Ray Telescopes (XRT) • Basic Structure • Effectiveness • Past Construction 3 Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com • XMM-Newton 1999 • Chandra 1999 • HETE-2 2000-07 • INTEGRAL 2002 4 ESA/NASA Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com • Swift 2004 • Suzaku 2005-2015 • AGILE 2007 • NuSTAR 2012 5 NASA/JPL/ASI/JAXA Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com • Astrosat 2015 • Hitomi (ASTRO-H) 2016-2016 • NICER (ISS) 2017 • HXMT/Insight 慧眼 2017 6 NASA/JPL/CNSA Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com NASA/JPL-Caltech Harrison, F.A. et al. (2013; ApJ, 770, 103) 7 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/770/2/103 Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com Grazing Incidence 8 NASA/JPL-Caltech Basic Structure: NuSTAR Mirrors Mindrum.com 9 NASA/JPL-Caltech Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • XMM Newton XRT 10 ESA Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • XMM-Newton mirrors D. de Chambure, XMM Project (ESTEC)/ESA 11 Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • Thermal Precollimator on ROSAT 12 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/ Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • AGILE Precollimator 13 http://agile.asdc.asi.it Basic Structure Mindrum.com • Spektr-RG 2018 14 MPE Basic Structure: Stray X-Rays Mindrum.com 15 NASA/JPL-Caltech Basic Structure: Grazing Mindrum.com 16 NASA X-Ray Effectiveness: Straylight Mindrum.com • Correct Reflection • Secondary Only • Backside Reflection • Primary Only 17 X-Ray Effectiveness Mindrum.com • The Crab Nebula by: ROSAT (1990) Chandra 18 S.
    [Show full text]
  • Interferometric Orbits of New Hipparcos Binaries
    Interferometric orbits of new Hipparcos binaries I.I. Balega1, Y.Y. Balega2, K.-H. Hofmann3, E.V. Malogolovets4, D. Schertl5, Z.U. Shkhagosheva6 and G. Weigelt7 1 Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences [email protected] 2 Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences [email protected] 3 Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Radioastronomie [email protected] 4 Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences [email protected] 5 Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Radioastronomie [email protected] 6 Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences [email protected] 7 Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Radioastronomie [email protected] Summary. First orbits are derived for 12 new Hipparcos binary systems based on the precise speckle interferometric measurements of the relative positions of the components. The orbital periods of the pairs are between 5.9 and 29.0 yrs. Magnitude differences obtained from differential speckle photometry allow us to estimate the absolute magnitudes and spectral types of individual stars and to compare their position on the mass-magnitude diagram with the theoretical curves. The spectral types of the new orbiting pairs range from late F to early M. Their mass-sums are determined with a relative accuracy of 10-30%. The mass errors are completely defined by the errors of Hipparcos parallaxes. 1 Introduction Stellar masses can be derived only from the detailed studies of the orbital motion in binary systems. To test the models of stellar structure and evolution, stellar masses must be determined with ≈ 2% accuracy. Until very recently, accurate masses were available only for double-lined, detached eclipsing binaries [1].
    [Show full text]
  • In-Flight PSF Calibration of the Nustar Hard X-Ray Optics
    In-flight PSF calibration of the NuSTAR hard X-ray optics Hongjun Ana, Kristin K. Madsenb, Niels J. Westergaardc, Steven E. Boggsd, Finn E. Christensenc, William W. Craigd,e, Charles J. Haileyf, Fiona A. Harrisonb, Daniel K. Sterng, William W. Zhangh aDepartment of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T8, Canada; bCahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; cDTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark; dSpace Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; eLawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA; fColumbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York NY 10027, USA; gJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA; hGoddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ABSTRACT We present results of the point spread function (PSF) calibration of the hard X-ray optics of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). Immediately post-launch, NuSTAR has observed bright point sources such as Cyg X-1, Vela X-1, and Her X-1 for the PSF calibration. We use the point source observations taken at several off-axis angles together with a ray-trace model to characterize the in-orbit angular response, and find that the ray-trace model alone does not fit the observed event distributions and applying empirical corrections to the ray-trace model improves the fit significantly. We describe the corrections applied to the ray-trace model and show that the uncertainties in the enclosed energy fraction (EEF) of the new PSF model is ∼<3% for extraction ′′ apertures of R ∼> 60 with no significant energy dependence.
    [Show full text]
  • Herschel, Planck to Look Deep Into Cosmos
    Jet APRIL Propulsion 2009 Laboratory VOLUME 39 NUMBER 4 Herschel, Planck to look In a cleanroom at Centre Spatial Guy- deep into anais, Kourou, French Guyana, the Herschel spacecraft is raised cosmos from its transport con- tainer to begin launch Thanks in large part to the preparations. contributions of instruments By Mark Whalen and technologies developed by JPL, long-range views of the universe are about to become much clearer. European European Space Agency When the European Space Agency’s Herschel and wavelengths, continuing to move further into the far like the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based Planck missions take to the sky together, onboard will infrared. There’s overlap with Spitzer, but Herschel telescopes to view galaxies in the billions, and millions be JPL’s legacy in cosmology studies. extends the range: Spitzer’s wavelength range is 3.5 to more with spectroscopy. In comparison, in the far infra- The pair are scheduled for launch together aboard an 160 microns; Herschel will go from 65 to 672 microns. red we have maybe a few hundred pictures of galaxies Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guyana on April Herschel’s mirror is much bigger than Spitzer’s and its that emit primarily in the far-infrared, but we know they 29. Once in orbit, Herschel and Planck will be sent angular resolution at the same wavelength will be sub- are important in a cosmological sense, and just the tip on separate trajectories to the second Lagrange point stantially better. of the iceberg. With Herschel, we will see hundreds of (L2), outside the orbit of the moon, to maintain an ap- “Herschel is really critical for studying important pro- thousands of galaxies, detected right at the peak of the proximately constant distance of 1.5 million kilometers cesses like how stars are formed,” said Paul Goldsmith, wavelengths they emit.” (900,000 miles) from Earth, in the opposite direction NASA Herschel project scientist and chief technologist A large fraction of the time with Herschel will be than the sun from Earth.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cosmic X-Ray Background
    The Cosmic X-Ray Background Steven M. Kahn Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Stanford University 1 Outline of Lectures Lecture I: * Historical Introduction and General Characteristics of the CXB. * Contributions from Discrete Source Classes * Spectral Paradoxes Lecture II: * The CXB and Large Scale Structure * The Galactic Contributions to the CXB * The CXB and the Cosmic Web 2 I. Historical Introduction and General Characteristics of the CXB. 3 Historical Introduction * The “birth” of the field of X-ray astronomy is usually associated with the flight of a particular rocket experiment in 1962 that yielded the detection of the first non-solar cosmic X-ray source: Scorpius X-1. (Giacconi et al. 1962) * That same rocket experiment also yielded the discovery of an apparent diffuse component of X-radiation, the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB). (N.B. This was well in advance of the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background by Pensias and Wilson!) * In the ensuing 40 some odd years, our understanding of the X-ray Universe has progressed considerably. X-rays have now been detected from virtually all classes of astronomical systems, ranging from normal stars to the most distant galaxies. * Nevertheless, the precise origin of the CXB remains puzzling. This has been one of the great mysteries of high energy astrophysics! 4 Historical Introduction 5 Historical Introduction * “The diffuse character of the observed background radiation does not permit a positive determination of its nature and origin. However, the apparent absorption coefficient in mica and the altitude dependence is consistent with radiation of about the same wavelength responsible for the peak.
    [Show full text]
  • Chandra Was Launched Aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999!!! Crew Lost During Re-Entry Modern X-Ray Telescopes and Detectors
    Chandra was launched aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999!!! Crew Lost During Re-Entry Modern X-ray Telescopes and Detectors •X-ray Telescopes •X-ray Instruments •Some early highlights •Observations •Data characteristics •Calibration •Analysis X-ray Telescope: The advantages • Achieve 2-D imaging – Separate sources – Study morphology of extended sources – Simultaneously measure both source and local background • Reduce the background Æ increase the source 1/2 detection sensitivity: S/N ~ Fs t/(Fst+ ASbt) –t –exposure time –Fs – source count flux –A –source detection area –Sb – background surface brightness: Detector + sky background • Facilitate high-resolution dispersive spectrometers X-ray Telescope: Focusing mechanism External reflection at small grazing angles - an analogy of skipping stones on water •Snell’s law: sinφr=sinφi/n, where the index of refraction n=1-δ+iβ • External reflection occurs with sinφr > 1 Æ 1/2 The critical grazing angle θ = π/2- φi ~ (2δ) 1/2 (δ ∝ ne /E << 1) Focusing mechanism (cont.) • The critical angle (effective collecting area) decreases with increasing photon energy • High Z materials allow for reflecting high energy photon with the same grazing angle X-ray Telescope: Hans Wolter Configuraions • A Paraboloid gives a perfect image for on-axis rays. But it gives a coma blur of equivalent image size proportional to the off-axis angle. • Wolter showed that two reflections were needed to eliminate the coma. • A Paraboloid-Hyperboloid combination proves to be the most useful in X-ray astronomy. X-ray Telescopes • First used to observe the Solar corona • Then transferred to general astronomy with HEAO-2 (Einstein Observatory), launched in 1978: – imaged X-rays in 0.5-4.0 keV.
    [Show full text]
  • Nustar Observatory Guide
    NuSTAR Guest Observer Program NuSTAR Observatory Guide Version 3.2 (June 2016) NuSTAR Science Operations Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, MD nustar.caltech.edu heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nustar/index.html i Revision History Revision Date Editor Comments D1,2,3 2014-08-01 NuSTAR SOC Initial draft 1.0 2014-08-15 NuSTAR GOF Release for AO-1 Addition of more information about CZT 2.0 2014-10-30 NuSTAR SOC detectors in section 3. 3.0 2015-09-24 NuSTAR SOC Update to section 4 for release of AO-2 Update for NuSTARDAS v1.6.0 release 3.1 2016-05-10 NuSTAR SOC (nusplitsc, Section 5) 3.2 2016-06-15 NuSTAR SOC Adjustment to section 9 ii Table of Contents Revision History ......................................................................................................................................................... ii 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 NuSTAR Program Organization ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. The NuSTAR observatory .................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 NuSTAR Performance ........................................................................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory: the Project Scientist’S Perspective
    SPECIAL FEATURE: PERSPECTIVE The making of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory: The project scientist’s perspective Martin C. Weisskopf1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35805 Edited by Harvey D. Tananbaum, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, and approved January 22, 2010 (received for review December 16, 2009) The history of the development of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory is reviewed from a personal perspective. This review is necessarily biased and limited by space because it attempts to cover a time span approaching five decades. historical perspective | x-ray astronomy t is sobering for me to realize that there arescientistswhoareworkingwithdata Ifrom this truly great observatory who were not even born when the founda- tion for what is now the Chandra X-Ray Observatory was laid. Thus, it may surprise many to know that the beginning was suc- cinctly and accurately outlined in a research proposal that Riccardo Giacconi and col- leagues wrote in 1963, a mere 9 months after he and his team’s discovery of the first ex- trasolar x-ray source Scorpius X-1. As im- portant, the data from this rocket flight also indicated the presence of the “diffuse x-ray background.” Fig. 1 illustrates the showpiece of this insightful proposal. It shows a ≈1-m diameter, 10-m focal length, grazing-incidence x-ray telescope. The telescope was of sufficient area and angular resolution to determine the nature of the unresolved x-ray background. We all owe Riccardo an enormous debt of gratitude for his insight, leadership, and, in my case (and I suspect for many others), inspiration.
    [Show full text]
  • Building the Coolest X-Ray Satellite
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration Building the Coolest X-ray Satellite 朱雀 Suzaku A Video Guide for Teachers Grades 9-12 Probing the Structure & Evolution of the Cosmos http://suzaku-epo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ www.nasa.gov The Suzaku Learning Center Presents “Building the Coolest X-ray Satellite” Video Guide for Teachers Written by Dr. James Lochner USRA & NASA/GSFC Greenbelt, MD Ms. Sara Mitchell Mr. Patrick Keeney SP Systems & NASA/GSFC Coudersport High School Greenbelt, MD Coudersport, PA This booklet is designed to be used with the “Building the Coolest X-ray Satellite” DVD, available from the Suzaku Learning Center. http://suzaku-epo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Table of Contents I. Introduction 1. What is Astro-E2 (Suzaku)?....................................................................................... 2 2. “Building the Coolest X-ray Satellite” ....................................................................... 2 3. How to Use This Guide.............................................................................................. 2 4. Contents of the DVD ................................................................................................. 3 5. Post-Launch Information ........................................................................................... 3 6. Pre-requisites............................................................................................................. 4 7. Standards Met by Video and Activities ...................................................................... 4 II. Video Chapter 1
    [Show full text]
  • Will the Real Monster Black Hole Please Stand Up? 8 January 2015
    Will the real monster black hole please stand up? 8 January 2015 how the merging of galaxies can trigger black holes to start feeding, an important step in the evolution of galaxies. "When galaxies collide, gas is sloshed around and driven into their respective nuclei, fueling the growth of black holes and the formation of stars," said Andrew Ptak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, lead author of a The real monster black hole is revealed in this new new study accepted for publication in the image from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Astrophysical Journal. "We want to understand the Array of colliding galaxies Arp 299. In the center panel, mechanisms that trigger the black holes to turn on the NuSTAR high-energy X-ray data appear in various and start consuming the gas." colors overlaid on a visible-light image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The panel on the left shows NuSTAR is the first telescope capable of the NuSTAR data alone, while the visible-light image is pinpointing where high-energy X-rays are coming on the far right. Before NuSTAR, astronomers knew that the each of the two galaxies in Arp 299 held a from in the tangled galaxies of Arp 299. Previous supermassive black hole at its heart, but they weren't observations from other telescopes, including sure if one or both were actively chomping on gas in a NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the process called accretion. The new high-energy X-ray European Space Agency's XMM-Newton, which data reveal that the supermassive black hole in the detect lower-energy X-rays, had indicated the galaxy on the right is indeed the hungry one, releasing presence of active supermassive black holes in Arp energetic X-rays as it consumes gas.
    [Show full text]