ASTRO-C, renamed Ginga (Japanese for 'galaxy'), was an X-ray astronomy

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

launched from the

Kagoshima Space Center The is a space launch facility in the Japanese town of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture. Before the establishment of the JAXA space agency in 2003, it was simply called the (KSC). All of Japan's scientific satellites were launched from Uchino ...

on 5 February 1987 using

M-3SII The Mu, also known as M, was a series of Japanese solid-fueled carrier rockets, which were launched from Uchinoura between 1966 and 2006. Originally developed by Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Mu rockets were later operated ...

launch vehicle. The primary instrument for observations was the Large Area Counter (LAC). Ginga was the third Japanese

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&nb ...

astronomy mission, following

Hakucho Hakucho (also known as CORSA-b before launch; CORSA stands for Cosmic Radiation Satellite) was Japan's first X-ray astronomy satellite, developed by the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (then a division of the University of Tokyo). I ...

and

Tenma Tenma, known as ASTRO-B before launch (COSPAR 1983-011A, SATCAT 13829), was a Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite, developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) is a Japanese national research organization of astroph ...

(also Hinotori satellite - which preceded Ginga - had X-ray sensors, but it can be seen as a heliophysics rather than X-ray astronomy mission). Ginga reentered the Earth's atmosphere on 1 November 1991.

Instruments

* Large Area Proportional Counter (LAC 1.5-37 keV) * All-Sky Monitor (ASM 1-20 keV) * Gamma-ray Burst Detector (GBD 1.5-500 keV)

Highlights

*Discovery of transient Black Hole Candidates and study of their spectral evolution. *Discovery of weak transients in the galactic ridge. *Detection of cyclotron features in 3

X-ray pulsar X-ray pulsars or accretion-powered pulsars are a class of astronomical objects that are X-ray sources displaying strict periodic variations in X-ray intensity. The X-ray periods range from as little as a fraction of a second to as much as several m ...

s: 4U1538-522, V0332+53, and Cep X-4. *Evidence for emission and absorption Fe feature in Seyfert probing reprocessing by cold matter. *Discovery of intense 6-7 keV iron line emission from the

Galactic Center The Galactic Center or Galactic Centre is the rotational center, the barycenter, of the Milky Way galaxy. Its central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which is called Sagittarius A*, a compact rad ...

region.

External links

NASA/GSFC information of Ginga (ex Astro-C)
Space telescopes X-ray telescopes Satellites of Japan Satellites formerly orbiting Earth 1987 in spaceflight Spacecraft launched in 1987 {{observatory-stub