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Wolter Telescope
A Wolter telescope is a telescope for X-rays that only uses grazing incidence optics – mirrors that reflect X-rays at very shallow angles. Problems with conventional telescope designs Conventional telescope designs require reflection or refraction in a manner that does not work well for X-rays. Visible light optical systems use either lenses or mirrors aligned for nearly normal incidence – that is, the light waves travel nearly perpendicular to the reflecting or refracting surface. Conventional mirror telescopes work poorly with X-rays, since X-rays that strike mirror surfaces nearly perpendicularly are either transmitted or absorbed – not reflected. Lenses for visible light are made of transparent materials with an index of refraction substantially different from 1, but all known X-ray-transparent materials have index of refraction essentially the same as 1, so X-ray lenses are not practical. X-ray mirror telescope design X-ray mirrors can be built, but only if the angle f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects, the word ''telescope'' now refers to a wide range of instruments capable of detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of detectors. The first known practical telescopes were refracting telescopes with glass lenses and were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. They were used for both terrestrial applications and astronomy. The reflecting telescope, which uses mirrors to collect and focus light, was invented within a few decades of the first refracting telescope. In the 20th century, many new types of telescopes were invented, including radio telescopes in the 1930s and infrared telescopes in the 1960s. Etymology The word ''telescope'' was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XMM-Newton
''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerstone mission of ESA's Horizon 2000 programme. Named after physicist and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton, the spacecraft is tasked with investigating interstellar X-ray sources, performing narrow- and broad-range spectroscopy, and performing the first simultaneous imaging of objects in both X-ray and optical ( visible and ultraviolet) wavelengths. Initially funded for two years, with a ten-year design life, the spacecraft remains in good health and has received repeated mission extensions, most recently in October 2020 and is scheduled to operate until the end of 2022. ESA plans to succeed ''XMM-Newton'' with the Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA), the second large mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 plan, to be laun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neutron Microscope
Neutron microscopes use neutrons to create images by nuclear fission of lithium-6 using small-angle neutron scattering. Neutrons also have no electric charge, enabling them to penetrate substances to gain information about structure that is not accessible through other forms of microscopy. As of 2013, neutron microscopes offered four-fold magnification and 10-20 times better illumination than pinhole neutron cameras. The system increases the signal rate at least 50-fold. Neutrons interact with atomic nuclei via the strong force. This interaction can scatter neutrons from their original path and can also absorb them. Thus, a neutron beam becomes progressively less intense as it moves deeper within a substance. In this way, neutrons are analogous to x-rays for studying object interiors. Darkness in an x-ray image corresponds to the amount of matter the x-rays pass through. The density of a neutron image provides information on neutron absorption. Absorption rates vary by many ord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Advanced Telescope For High Energy Astrophysics
Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (''Athena'') is an X-ray observatory mission selected by European Space Agency (ESA) within its Cosmic Vision program to address the Hot and Energetic Universe scientific theme. ''Athena'' will operate in the energy range of 0.2–12 keV and will offer spectroscopic and imaging capabilities exceeding those of currently operating X-ray astronomy satellites – e.g. the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton – by at least one order of magnitude on several parameter spaces simultaneously. Mission The primary goals of the mission are to map hot gas structures, determine their physical properties, and search for supermassive black holes. History and development The mission has its roots in two concepts from the early 2000s, XEUS of ESA and Constellation-X Observatory (Con-X) of NASA. Around 2008, these two proposals were merged into the joint NASA/ESA/JAXA International X-ray Observatory (IXO) proposal. In 2011, IXO wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomical Roentgen Telescope -- X-ray Concentrator
The Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) is an X-ray telescope with a grazing incidence mirror that is capable of capturing high energy X-ray photons within the 5-30 keV energy range. This telescope is one of the two X-ray telescopes on the Spektr-RG (SRG) mission. The other telescope that SRG carries is eROSITA. The observatory was launched on 13 July 2019 via a Proton rocket from the Russian launch site Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Overview ART-XC was developed by the Space Research Institute (IKI) and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Experimental Physics (VNIIEF). The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has developed and fabricated flight models of the X-ray mirror systems. The ART-XC telescope consists of 7 identical mirror modules each made with 28 nickel-cobalt grazing-incidence mirrors. The mirror design is Wolter-I and is coated with iridium. Each module also has its own cadmium-tellurium double-sided strip detector. The typical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spektr-RG
Spektr-RG ( Russian: Спектр-РГ, ''Spectrum'' + '' Röntgen'' + ''Gamma''; also called Spectrum-X-Gamma, SRG, SXG) is a Russian–German high-energy astrophysics space observatory which was launched on 13 July 2019. It follows on from the Spektr-R satellite telescope launched in 2011. Background The original idea for this X-ray observatory satellite orbiting above Earth's atmosphere, which filters X-rays, was first proposed in the 1980s by Rashid Sunyaev of the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Twenty institutions from twelve countries came together to design a large observatory with five telescopes. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mission was abandoned due to cost-cutting from the Russian space program Roscosmos. The project was resurrected in 2003 with a scaled-down design. Overview The primary instrument of the mission is eROSITA, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany. It is d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EROSITA
eROSITA is an X-ray instrument built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany. It is part of the Russian–German Spektr-RG space observatory, which also carries the Russian telescope ART-XC. It was launched by Roscosmos on 13 July 2019 from Baikonur, and deployed in a 6-month halo orbit around the second Lagrange point (L2). It began collecting data in October 2019. Due to the breakdown of institutional cooperation between Germany and Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, the instrument stopped collecting data on February 26, 2022. Overview eROSITA was originally designed by the ESA for the International Space Station, and it was concluded in 2005 that its accommodation on a dedicated free flyer would provide significantly improved scientific output. The eROSITA telescopes are based on the design of the ABRIXAS observatory launched in April 1999, whose battery was accidentally overcharged and destroyed three days after the mission starte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ROSAT
ROSAT (short for Röntgensatellit; in German X-rays are called Röntgenstrahlen, in honour of Wilhelm Röntgen) was a German Aerospace Center-led satellite X-ray telescope, with instruments built by West Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was launched on 1 June 1990, on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, on what was initially designed as an 18-month mission, with provision for up to five years of operation. ROSAT operated for over eight years, finally shutting down on 12 February 1999. In February 2011, it was reported that the satellite was unlikely to burn up entirely while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere due to the large amount of ceramics and glass used in construction. Parts as heavy as could impact the surface. ROSAT eventually re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 23 October 2011 over Bay of Bengal. Overview According to NASA, the Roentgensatellit (ROSAT) was a joint German, U.S. and British X-ray astrophysics project. ROSAT carried a Germa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chandra X-ray Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 100 times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope, enabled by the high angular resolution of its mirrors. Since the Earth's atmosphere absorbs the vast majority of X-rays, they are not detectable from Earth-based telescopes; therefore space-based telescopes are required to make these observations. Chandra is an Earth satellite in a 64-hour orbit, and its mission is ongoing . Chandra is one of the Great Observatories, along with the Hubble Space Telescope, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (1991–2000), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (2003–2020). The telescope is named after the Nobel Prize-winning Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Its mission is similar to that of ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft, also launched in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz ( to ) and energies in the range 145 eV to 124 keV. X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays. In many languages, X-radiation is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it on November 8, 1895. He named it ''X-radiation'' to signify an unknown type of radiation.Novelline, Robert (1997). ''Squire's Fundamentals of Radiology''. Harvard University Press. 5th edition. . Spellings of ''X-ray(s)'' in English include the variants ''x-ray(s)'', ''xray(s)'', and ''X ray(s)''. The most familiar use of X-rays is checking for fractures (broken bones), but X-rays are also used in other ways. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, previously called the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, is a NASA three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and monitoring the afterglow in X-ray, and UV/Visible light at the location of a burst. It was launched on 20 November 2004, aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. Headed by principal investigator Neil Gehrels until his death in February 2017, the mission was developed in a joint partnership between Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and an international consortium from the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. The mission is operated by Pennsylvania State University as part of NASA's Medium Explorer program (MIDEX). The burst detection rate is 100 per year, with a sensitivity ~3 times fainter than the BATSE detector aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The Swift mission was launched with a nominal on-orbit lifetime of two years. Swift is a NASA MIDEX (medium-class Explorer) mission. It was the third to be la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, also named Explorer 93 and SMEX-11) is a NASA space-based X-ray telescope that uses a conical approximation to a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays from astrophysical sources, especially for nuclear spectroscopy, and operates in the range of 3 to 79 keV. NuSTAR is the eleventh mission of NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX-11) satellite program and the first space-based direct-imaging X-ray telescope at energies beyond those of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton. It was successfully launched on 13 June 2012, having previously been delayed from 21 March 2012 due to software issues with the launch vehicle. The mission's primary scientific goals are to conduct a deep survey for black holes a billion times more massive than the Sun, to investigate how particles are accelerated to very high energy in active galaxies, and to understand how the elements are created in the explosions of massive stars by imaging supernova rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
