CHANDRA Science Center

Using CHANDRA Local copies of CIAO 2.0 CHANDRA User Support IfA & CHANDRA CHANDRA observations of the Hawaii Deep Fields CHANDRA maps cosmic pressure fronts In the News CHANDRA telescope's first light UH team makes cosmic breakthrough Scientists ID intergalactic cold front General Information CHANDRA Center CHANDRA Photo Album Public Information & Education CHANDRA chronicles 10 amazing facts about CHANDRA Movies CHANDRA's orbit around the Earth (Quicktime, 1.4 Mb) Overview of the Shuttle mission: Shockwave (1.7 Mb) or Quicktime (2.2 Mb)

The task of the CHANDRA science center at the IfA - consisting of Patrick Henry and Douglas Burke - is the co-development and testing of the software used to reduce and analyse data from the CHANDRA X-ray satellite. We are one of three external centers - the other two are at Stanford University and the University of Chicago - who work with the main CHANDRA sites at the CfA and MIT. The CHANDRA X-ray telescope, third in NASA's family of "Great Observatories",  was deployed from the Shuttle Columbia on July 23rd at 7:47 am EDT. The other members of this family are the Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Astrophysics with CHANDRA A wide range of astronomical sources emit X-rays, including stars which explode or flare, black holes, quasars, and galaxy clusters. Astronomers at the IfA will make use of CHANDRA's superb spatial resolution - 25 times sharper than any other X-ray satellite - to study such objects, and so learn more about the origin, evolution, and destiny of the universe. Resolving the hard X-ray background - CHANDRA observations of the Hawaii Deep Fields Cosmic pressure fronts - CHANDRA takes a look at A2142, a merging cluster of galaxies What is a `CHANDRA'? The CHANDRA X-ray observatory was named in honor of the late Indian-American Nobel laureate,  Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who was known the world over as Chandra (which means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit). He is widely regarded as one of the foremost astrophysicists of the twentieth century, being particularly well known for his work on white dwarf stars, although his research encompassed most branches of theoretical astrophysics. More information  on the work and life of Chandra. What are X-rays? X-rays are a form of high-energy light that are invisible to the human eye. Unlike visible light, X-rays are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, which means that X-ray detectors must be placed at high altitude - above the atmosphere - in order to "see" the light from astronomical sources. Whilst early detectors were flown on balloons and rockets, nowadays they are launched into space, flying in orbit around the Earth. X-rays are produced when matter is heated to millions of degrees due to violent and extreme conditions, such as the large gravitational field near a black hole, explosive forces due to supernova, or gas caught in regions of high magnetic fields. Much of the matter in the universe is so hot that it can only be seen using X-ray telescopes; whether it's matter as close as 90 kilometers from the event horizon of a black hole or the clouds of gas found in clusters of galaxies that span regions several millions of light years across. Field guide to X-ray astronomy X-rays: Astronomy versus Medical Images and text provided courtesy of NASA/CXC/SAO.

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Doug Burke (burke@ifa.hawaii.edu)