NASA released 25 images of cosmic objects to celebrate 25 the anniversary of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The image released will have the data taken from Chandra which displays how X-ray explores interstellar space and captures the cosmic objects.
The sample images are released after the 25,000 observations made by Chandra since its deployment. Chandra was launched on July 23, 1999, on the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Commander Eileen Collins executed this mission successfully by taking care of Chandra's successful deployment into the elliptical orbit.
Pat Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center said “For a quarter century, Chandra has discovered after amazing discovery,” he further added, “Astronomers have used Chandra to investigate mysteries that we didn’t even know about when we were building the telescope — including exoplanets and dark energy.”
X-rays are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. They have shorter wavelengths than UV rays. These rays are used by Chandra to reveal extremely hot objects.
Chandra when observing an object in space, the telescope’s camera records photons. These photons are transmitted to Earth as data encoded in binary (1’s and 0’s).
After the translation of the data by the software from a visual representation of the object. According to NASA, Andrew Schnell acting project manager of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama said that “Chandra has been a great success story for humanity and its pursuit of knowledge,”
He further added, “Chandra’s incredible accomplishments are made possible by the team’s hard work and dedication.” The deployment history of Chandra started when Riccardo Giacconi and Harvey Tananbaum in the year 1976 first proposed this to NASA.
This observatory has contributed greatly to space knowledge as it has provided insights into the supernova, including the discovery of a neutron star at its centre and evidence for a “superfluid” inside it.
Other notable images in the collection feature the Crab Nebula, the Orion Nebula, and the Pillars of Creation in M16. These images not only highlight the beauty of space but also the scientific importance of X-ray data in understanding the life cycle of stars and the dynamics of stellar remnants. This anniversary is a testament to Chandra’s role in advancing our knowledge of the universe through X-ray astronomy.
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