chandra x-ray observatory

It might be the end of the road for two of NASA’s most iconic telescopes as the space agency looks to reduce the funding for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, much to the dismay of scientists who rely heavily on the cosmic observations of the missions.The Fujifilm X100VI is the Most Fun I’ve Had With a Camera in YearsShortly after the fate of its 2024 budget was sealed, NASA released its budget proposal for 2025, requesting $1.58 billion for its astrophysics division. Despite the 3% increase…

This artist’s illustration shows a cross-section of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Researchers, led by Ruth Daly at Penn State, determined that the black hole is spinning at about 60% of its potential speed. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss Researchers revealed that the black hole’s spinning speed could provide an ‘incredibly powerful kick’ to surrounding matter.The supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way is spinning so quickly it is warping the spacetime…

This artist’s illustration shows a cross-section of the supermassive black hole and surrounding material in the center of our galaxy. The black sphere in the center represents the event horizon of the black hole, the point of no return from which nothing, not even light, can escape. Looking at the spinning black hole from the side, as depicted in this illustration, the surrounding spacetime is shaped like an American football. The yellow-orange material to either side represents gas swirling around the black hole. This…

This artist’s illustration shows a cross-section of the supermassive black hole and surrounding material in the center of our galaxy. The black sphere in the center represents the event horizon of the black hole, the point of no return from which nothing, not even light, can escape. Looking at the spinning black hole from the side, as depicted in this illustration, the surrounding spacetime is shaped like an American football. The yellow-orange material to either side represents gas swirling around the black hole. This…

Combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope have given us a unique look at Cassiopeia A (Cas A). This is the first time astronomers have combined data from the two telescopes to study this well-known supernova, which has proven exceptionally helpful.One of the main reasons astronomers wanted to combine data from Chandra and James Webb was to help look at Cas A’s unique debris, called the “Green Monster.” This “monster” of debris rests near the center of the supernova and…

This deep dataset from Chandra of the remains of a supernova known as 30 Doradus B (30 Dor B) reveals evidence for more than one supernova explosion in the history of this remnant. Unusual structures in the Chandra data cannot be explained by a single explosion. These images of 30 Dor B also show optical data from the Blanco telescope in Chile, and infrared data from Spitzer. Additional data from Hubble highlights sharp features in the image. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.; Optical:…

India's ISRO launched its first satellite, XPoSat, on Monday to study black holes as it seeks to deepen its space exploration efforts ahead of an ambitious crewed mission next year. The spacecraft, named X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, was propelled into an orbit of 350 kilometers from an island near India's main spaceport of Sriharikota, off the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, according to S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The XPoSat satellite, weighing about 470 kilograms, will carry out…

This new image of supernova remnant SN 1006 combines data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The red, green, and blue elements reflect low, medium, and high energy X-rays, respectively, as detected by Chandra. The IXPE data, which measure the polarization of the X-ray light, is show in purple in the upper left corner, with the addition of lines representing the outward movement of the remnant’s magnetic field. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO (Chandra); NASA/MSFC/Nanjing…

The Einstein Probe, an X-ray telescope managed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will be ready to launch next month. The probe will look for transient events in X-ray light and try to answer some fundamental questions about black holes and gravitational waves.Gizmodo’s Top Five Gadgets of 2023Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, and Webb. Undoubtedly iconic names, but now, in a long overdue development, we’re finally going to have a space-based telescope named after the famed German-born theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein.The…

Even the stars celebrate the holiday season. A new image of NGC 2264, also known as the Christmas Tree Cluster, has been released by NASA, and it’s absolutely stunning. The folks behind processing the image even painted the gas and dust around the cluster green, giving it the appearance of a freshly cut Christmas tree sitting upright in the cosmos.NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars located 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The cluster is estimated to include stars between the ages of one to five million years…