X-Ray Astronomy

X-Ray Astronomy

• X-Rays – Light at high energies– Takes lots of energy to produce them

• Atmosphere absorbs X-Rays

• Most of the matter that we “see” is known to us from its X-Ray emission

X-Ray Astronomy

• Solar Studies in late 40’s

• Discovery of first extra solar source in 1962– Also discovery of faint glow (the “diffuse

background)

Project History

• Began in 1976

• Launch in 1999

Chandra –Line Drawing

The Optics

Mirror Polishing

Optical Bench

InstrumentsAdvanced Ccd Imaging Spectrometer

InstrumentsHigh Resolution Camera

X-Ray Calibration Facility

Preparing For Thermal Vacuum Test

The Crew

Chandra/IUS in Cargo Bay

Launch (7-19-99) Almost

Launch at Last!7-23-1999

Chandra Deployed

The Orbit

From above, with radiation belts & Moon Side view, showing radiation belts

First Light

First Light

Planets

• Jupiter– Hot spots at high latitudes

• Big surprise

– Pulsates (45 minute period)

Venus

Supernova Schematic

Monitoring Sn1987a

Crab Nebula

Crab Pulsar Always on!

Vela Pulsar

Globular Cluster M15

• Chandra resolved 2 sources in center

• Explained contradictory observations

Galactic Center

•First high-resolution X-ray panorama of the Galactic center

•Detection of about 1,000 discrete X-ray sources

•Detection of large amounts of hot gas

Sgr A*

Sgr A*

Normal Galaxies – M81

Active Galaxies - NGC 1068

Multi-wavelength Jets: M87

X-Ray-Bright Highest-Redshift Quasars

Clusters of Galaxies - Hydra

Clusters of Galaxies – Dark Matter

The Deep Surveys

• 1Million seconds on Chandra Deep Field-South and 2 Million on CDF-N– Probe is 80 times deeper at low energies– 800 times deeper at hard energies– All data publicly available

• CDF-N detects about 500 discrete sources and 6 extended sources

Summary

• Operations are running smoothly

• Mission success – Design of the Observatory – Excellent and committed staff– Team effort involving all the players– Exciting and fundamental scientific results– Papers at a rate of ~10 per week

Education and & Outreach

Public Web Site http://chandra.harvard.edu

– Access to Chandra images & information

Products – posters, coloring books, – lithographs & other

printed items– educational videos– CD-ROMs