The Space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory

Quick Fun Facts About The Chandra X-ray Observatory!

• The Chandra X-Ray Observatory was designed to provide information about objects ranging from comets in our solar system to quasars at the edge of the observable universe from X-ray emissions!
• The space-based telescope was named after the late Indian-American astrophysicist and Nobel Prize winner - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
• The Space Shuttle Columbia carried Chandra into low Earth orbit and weighed 5,860 kilograms (12,930 lbs) when launched.
• The Chandra observatory is really a kind of telescope that is 13.8 m (45.3 ft) long, so almost filled the Shuttle’s payload bay!
• Chandra’s X-ray telescope is unlike traditional telescopes though, it uses cylindrical mirrors to ‘funnel’ the X-rays to its detectors. It offers higher resolution and is 50 times more sensitive than previous X-ray telescopes.
• Chandra is in a highly elliptical (14,400 km by 134,500 km) orbit around the Earth with a period of 64 hours, allowing continuous observations of up to 55 hours.
• Chandra’s six solar panels extend 19.5 m (64 ft) tip-to-tip and generate 2,350 watts of electricity to run the satellite.
• The observations that Chandra has made has greatly advanced the field of X-ray astronomy! Some of the observatories greatest discoveries are;
  • In the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant, Chandra revealed a ring and jets around the central pulsar.
  • The earliest images, in X-rays, of the shock wave of a supernova were taken of SN 1987A.
  • A new type of mid-sized black hole was discovered in galaxy M82
  • A brown dwarf (over 10 times the mass of Jupiter) was observed orbiting a binary system of Sun-like stars.
  • Chandra discovered that nearly all stars on the ‘main sequence’ emit X-rays.
  • X-ray emissions have been observed from material falling from a protoplanetary disc into the star.
  • In 2006 the Chandra observatory discovered strong evidence that dark matter exists by observing a supercluster collision.
  • A large halo of hot gas was found surrounding the Milky Way galaxy.
  • In early 2015 an X-ray flare 400 times brighter than usual, was observed coming from Sagittarius A*; the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way galaxy!