NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory caught signs of what appeared to be a black hole snacking on gas at the middle of the nearby Sculptor galaxy. Now,NuSTAR results imply it went dormant.
Astronomers at NASA and Pennsylvania State have used the Swift satellite to create the most detailed ultraviolet light surveys ever of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
Three unusually long-lasting stellar explosions discovered by NASA’s Swift satellite represent a previously unrecognized class of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).
An exploding star observed in 1604 by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler held a greater fraction of heavy elements than the sun, according to an analysis of X-ray observations from Suzaku.
NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program has selected two missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an International Space Station instrument to observe X-rays from stars.
NICER/SEXTANT and Super-TIGER are featured in Volume 9, Issue 3 (Spring 2013) of the Cutting Edge
Congratulations to the NICER and TESS teams!
04.05.2013
HQ has just announced the selections of the next two Explorer missions.
Congratulations go to Dr Keith Gendreau (X-ray Astrophysics Lab) and his
team for the selected NICER mission! This is an X-ray telescope dedicated to
observe timing of neutron stars. NICER will be placed on the ISS to observe
pulsars to both determine the structure of neutron stars and to demonstrate
their use as deep space navigation beacons. The TESS mission is led by
George Ricker at MIT and managed by GSFC. TESS will make a survey of nearby
stars to search for Exo-planets and will provide targets for JWST to observe
and characterize their atmospheres, potentially finding nearby habitable
planets in nearby solar systems.
The X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory conducts investigations of a broad range of astronomical systems through detection and analysis of their X-ray emission and other radiation they emit. Objects studied range from nearby solar system objects to cosmological structures. Researchers at the Laboratory investigate the physics of extreme environments?such as those near the event horizons of black holes?and the evolution of stars, galaxies, and large-scale structures.
The Laboratory is the preeminent developer of state-of-the-art X-ray astronomical detectors and optical systems for performing precise spectroscopy, polarimetry, timing, and imaging. These instruments have been employed in numerous suborbital applications (sounding rockets and balloons) and orbiting observatories.
