Chandra (telescope)
Chandra | |
---|---|
Type: | X-ray telescope |
Country: | United States |
Operator: | NASA |
COSPAR-ID : | 1999-040B |
Mission dates | |
Dimensions: | 4800 kg |
Begin: | July 23, 1999, 04:31 UTC |
Starting place: | Kennedy Space Center , LC-39B |
Launcher: | Space Shuttle Columbia |
Status: | in orbit |
Orbit data | |
Rotation time : | 2d, 15h, 29min |
Orbit inclination : | 45.1 ° |
Apogee height : | 128,769 km |
Perigee height : | 20,046 km |
Chandra (full name Chandra X-ray Observatory ) is a satellite with an X-ray telescope . It was put into earth orbit on July 23, 1999 by NASA with the space shuttle Columbia (mission STS-93 ) and is named after the astronomer Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar . It is 13.8 m long and weighs 4.8 tons.
Planning and commissioning
The X-ray Observatory has been in the development and construction AXAF ( A dvanced X -ray A strophysics F called acility), but renamed before the start of Chandra. Together with the Inertial Upper Stage , Chandra is the largest satellite to be launched into orbit by a space shuttle. His primary mission was scheduled for a period of five years, but has already been extended several times.
With the help of its maneuvering engines , the satellite was brought into space on a strongly eccentric elliptical orbit ( 80792 km, 0.802), which is largely above the Earth's radiation belt , so that bremsstrahlung from particles of the solar wind and cosmic rays cannot influence the measurement. One orbit of the space telescope on its orbit takes 64 hours 18 minutes, of which around 55 hours can be used for observation.
Instruments
After the Hubble Space Telescope in the optical range and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory in the gamma range, the Chandra X-ray satellite is the third of the four space observatories planned by NASA as part of the Great Observatory Program . In the infrared range, this program was completed by the Spitzer space telescope . The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is responsible for the scientific supervision and control of the satellite .
Chandra is equipped with
- a quadruple nested Wolter telescope
- two transmission grating spectrometers, LETGS ( L ow E nergy T ransmission G ratings S pectrometer) for the energy range from 0.09 to 3 keV and
- HETGS ( H igh E nergy T ransmission G rating S pectrometer) for the energy range 0.4-10 keV,
- and with an imaging spectrometer (ACIS, A dvanced C CD I maging S pectrometer); this consists of 10 CCD chips and is sensitive to radiation energies of 0.2 to 10 keV.
With a maximum resolution of 0.5 arcseconds, Chandra's images are much better sharp than images from previous missions. In comparison, the very successful German X-ray satellite ROSAT had a resolution of around 4 arc seconds.
Results
In 2006, Chandra SN 2006gy was discovered, the most energetic supernova explosion observed to date (see picture).
literature
- Wallace H. Tucker, et al .: Revealing the Universe - The Making of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge 2001, ISBN 0-674-00497-3 .
Web links
- Chandra (AXAF) at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
- Chandra website (English)
- Chandra X-ray Center (English)
- extrasolar-planets.com - Chandra X-ray Observatory
- NASA images
swell
- ↑ Chandra in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed June 24, 2011.
- ↑ Chandra X-ray Observatory Quick Facts. NASA, accessed on May 28, 2014 (English): "The Chandra X-ray Observatory, with its Inertial Upper Stage and support equipment, is the largest and heaviest payload ever launched by the Space Shuttle."
- ↑ Chandra :: Chronicles :: Chandra's Mission Extended to 2009 :: September 28, 2001. In: chandra.harvard.edu. Retrieved October 3, 2015 .
- ^ NASA: Chandra Fact Sheet