The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is an orbital telescope used to see the x-ray spectrum. It looks like a long cylinder with solar panels. This is due to the fact that x-rays can only be reflected by very small angles at a time or else they will pass through the mirror. It is used often to look at fun things like black holes and x-ray halos. The telescope has also been used to observe the Andromeda Galaxy and most anything high energy. One of the most interesting things its being used to research is the properties of cosmic dust between stars, not only because of the findings but also because of the mathematics used to pull information on everything from dust size to metallicity simply from x-ray data. Its primary website is http://chandra.harvard.edu, there are some striking images there.
General Facts
- Launch date
- July 23, 1999
- Launch vehicle
- space shuttle Columbia
- Time to orbit Earth
- 64 hours
- Altitude
- from 9,660 km (6,000 miles) to 139,000 km (86,500 miles)
- Length (sun shade open)
- 45.3 feet
- Width (solar arrays open)
- 64 feet
- Satellite builder
- TRW
- Instruments
- Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS)
- High Resolution Camera (HRC)
- High Energy Transmission Grating (HETG)
- Low Energy Transmission Grating (LETG)
Instrument Information
- ACIS
- Arrays: ACIS-I is 4 CCDs, ACIS-S is 6 CCDs
- CCD Resolution: 1024x1024
- Pixel size: 0.492 arcsec
- Array size: ACIS-I - 16.9x16.9 arcmin, ACIS-S - 8.3x0.6 arcmin
- Max readout rate per channel: appx. 100 kpix/s
- Energy range: 0.5, 1.5 and 8.0 keV
- HRC
- Arrays: HRC-I, HRC-S. Both are CsI microcoated plate pairs
- Field of view: HRC-I - 30x30 arcmin, HRC-S - 6x90 arcmin
- Spatial resolution: appx. 0.4 arcsec
- Energy range: 0.8 - 10 keV
- HETG
- Range: 0.4-10 keV
- Accuracy: From 0.4-5.0 keV (Medium Energy) 0.006 angstrom, From 0.8-10 keV (High Energy) 0.011 angstrom
- LETG
- Range: HRC-S 0.07-7.29 keV, ACIS-S 0.20-8.86 keV
- Resolution: 0.05 angstrom
Sources:
http://chandra.harvard.edu
http://cxc.harvard.edu
http://www.casciencectr.org/
http://www.researchmatters.harvard.edu/
Dr. DiStephano - Harvard University