Light from the Void: Twenty Years of Discovery with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tremblay, Grant, author. | Arcand, Kimberly K., author. | Watzke, Megan K., author.

Title: Light from the void : NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory / Grant Tremblay, Kimberly Arcand, and Megan Watzke.

Other titles: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory | Chandra X-ray Observatory

Description: Washington, DC : Smithsonian Books, [2019] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019019663 (print) | LCCN 2019021938 (ebook) | ISBN 9781588346780 | ISBN 9781588346698

Subjects: LCSH: Chandra X-ray Observatory (U.S.) | X-ray astronomy.

Classification: LCC QB472 (ebook) | LCC QB472 .T74 2019 (print) | DDC 522/.6863--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019019663

Ebook ISBN 9781588346780

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Title pages: 30 Doradus (the Tarantula Nebula), this page

Dedication page: SN 1006, this page

Table of contents: Perseus A, this page

a_prh_5.4_c0_r1

THIS BOOK, LIKE CHANDRA’S LEGACY, IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

RICCARDO GIACCONI

Perseus A, this page

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Foreword

Lifting Chandra into Space

Introduction: The Accelerated Expansion of Discovery

The Road to Chandra

The Chandra X-ray Observatory: Two Decades of Flight, a Century of Dreams

Chapter 1. The Light of Infant Suns

Chapter 2. Beginnings at the End

Chapter 3. Kingdoms of the Void

Chapter 4. Shape of the Expanse

Chapter 5. Going Beyond

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Index

Illustration Credits

Crab Nebula, this page

FOREWORD

BELINDA J. WILKES

Senior Astrophysicist, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Director, Chandra X-ray Center

MARTIN C. WEISSKOPF

Chief Scientist for X-ray Astronomy, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Project Scientist for the Chandra X-ray Observatory

THE CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY, one of four members of NASA’s Great Observatory cohort, celebrates its twentieth year of operation in 2019. This book shares highlights of Chandra’s scientific results: X-ray and multi-wavelength pictures of the hottest and most violent celestial sources for which the X-ray emission reveals new information, often revolutionizing our understanding of the Universe.

Chandra remains without peer in its capabilities for producing sub-arcsecond X-ray images, precisely locating X-ray sources, detecting them to extremely faint levels, measuring their structure in detail, and obtaining high-resolution, spatially resolved spectra. It is the world’s greatest X-ray observatory, and it will remain so in the years to come—indeed, eight to ten years of further operation are currently expected.

Chandra’s unique capabilities enable it to play a key role in the investigation of the extreme physics involved in spectacular phenomena such as the merger of neutron stars and tidal disruptions of stars by supermassive black holes. It enables astronomers to employ cosmic laboratories to study a wide range of otherwise inaccessible physical phenomena: the behavior of matter at extremely high densities, the effects of ultra-strong magnetic fields, the physics of matter swirling into black holes, and the ability of supermassive black holes to affect the evolution of entire galaxies, even clusters of galaxies. Chandra has added new dimensions to our knowledge of celestial sources from planets and exoplanets to galaxies and galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the universe, and everything in between.

Since X-rays are produced by practically every kind of astronomical object, it takes the high-precision and high-quality data that Chandra provides to study and understand them. Chandra has brought X-ray astronomy into the mainstream of astronomy and astrophysics, and thousands of astronomers and astrophysicists worldwide have used the Observatory. Discoveries include the ubiquity of X-ray emitting jets from quasars, the discovery of X-ray emission from a source of gravitational waves, and the hostile environment for forming plantes provided by X-ray emisssion from their stars.

Chandra’s outstanding success, not only scientifically but also programmatically and financially, has been the result of a highly integrated team effort between NASA; its lead center for Chandra, the Marshall Space Flight Center; and the prime contractor for the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC), the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The CXC carries out all aspects of the mission from its facilities in Massachusetts, with managerial and scientific oversight from the MSFC Project Office. The CXC subcontracts with several organizations, including the instrument Principal Investigators and their teams at Penn State University, MIT, and SAO, as well as Northrup Grumman Corporation (formerly TRW), the prime contractor for the mission, which, along with its subcontractors, provides the operations team and engineering support.

It is an honor and a privilege to have participated in the building and in the continuing operations of this scientific cathedral and to share some of its wonders in this book. In closing, we acknowledge the contributions of the Chandra Telescope Scientist, Leon Van Speybroeck, for the critical role he played in delivering the optics, and of Riccardo Giacconi, whose leadership and vision inspired this Great Observatory.

With this one experiment it is impossible to completely define the nature and origin of the radiation we have observed….However, we believe that the data can best be explained by identifying the bulk of the radiation as soft X-rays from sources outside the solar system.

RICCARDO GIACCONI

From his 1962 paper describing the first detection of X-rays from beyond the Solar System

On July 23, 1999 Columbia lifts Chandra into the void. STS-93 Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeffrey Ashby, and Mission Specialists Michel Togini, Steven Hawley, and Cady Coleman become the last humans to see Chandra with their naked eyes.

LIFTING

CHANDRA INTO SPACE: AN ASTRONAUT’S PERSPECTIVE

COLONEL EILEEN M. COLLINS, USAF (Ret.)

Commander, Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-93

AS A CHILD IN RURAL upstate New York, I was inspired by the stars in the night sky. When I joined the Air Force, I was stationed in Oklahoma, where my growing passion for astronomy was rewarded with vast, clear, dark nights lit up with beautiful stars.

I subscribed to magazines and book clubs. I bought