This panoramic view of our Milky Way in X-ray light was taken as part of the calibration and test campaign of Einstein Probe in space. During this test observation lasting more than 11 hours, the satellite detected various celestial objects that generate X-rays. Each object is captured as a purple cross due to the way the spacecraft’s novel lobster-eye optics work. The X-ray observations are shown on top of an optical image of the Milky Way created by European Southern Observatory ground-based telescopes.
Einstein Probe’s Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) consists of twelve modules that cover more than 3600 square degrees of the sky. The satellite can capture the full night sky in three orbits around Earth. While monitoring the sky, the mission will spot X-rays from powerful events like supernovas, material falling into black holes or even colliding neutron stars. The Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) can subsequently zoom in on these objects and provide more detailed information.
Read more
[Image description: An image of the Milky Way galaxy. The background is dark with a slightly brighter band spanning form left to right, overlayed with a darker cloud-like structure. On top of this background roughly twenty purple crosses stand out. They are plus sign shaped and have a bright dot in the middle. One of the crosses is much brighter than the others and located in the upper part of the image. On top of the background and observation crosses, is a grid of squares.]
Credits: EPSC, NAO/CAS; DSS; ESO
Tags: ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology X-Ray X rays Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) Lobster eyes
© All Rights Reserved
Omega Centauri is the largest cluster in the Milky Way, with a mass a million times that of our Sun. During Einstein Probe’s first months in space, observations of the well-known cluster helped to test and calibrate the satellite’s imaging quality.
Binary systems comprising a star with a black hole or neutron star companion generate X-rays when material from the star falls onto its heavy companion. Many such systems call Omega Centauri their home, making it shine brightly in X-ray light. Einstein Probe’s Follow-Up X-ray Telescope observed the structure and core region of the globular cluster.
Read more
[Image description: The image is square but rotated 45 degrees on top of a black background and looks like hundreds of blue lights in a diamond shape. A handful of the light dots are bigger, magenta-coloured at their centre, and are located near the edges of the image. Centrally, there are smaller light dots close together creating a brighter centre of the image.]
Credits: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tags: ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology X-Ray X rays Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) Lobster eyes
© All Rights Reserved
An image of Puppis A in X-ray light, taken as part of the test and calibration campaign of Einstein Probe. Puppis A is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred 4000 years ago, the bright dot in the centre is the remnant star. The cloud-like structure surrounding it comes from hot material generated and expelled during the supernova. Einstein Probe’s Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) took this image. Accompanying this image, FXT also delivered a spectrum of the source tracing the energy distribution of its light. This enables scientist to find out which are the elements present in this supernova remnant.
Read more
[Image Description: This image shows a supernova remnant that looks like it has the texture of a dried apricot. The remnant shows a brightness variation, being brighter in the upper left part and darker in the bottom right. In the middle of the apricot-like structure is a bright yellow dot, which stands out on top of the darker orange colour of the remnant.]
Credits: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tags: ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology X-Ray X rays Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) Lobster eyes
© All Rights Reserved
SNR 0509-67.5 is a supernova remnant located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way about 160,000 light years away. This 2010 Chandra image of SNR 0509 shows soft green and blue hues of heated material from the X-ray data surrounded by the glowing pink optical shell which shows the ambient gas being shocked by the expanding blast wave from the supernova. Ripples in the shell's appearance coincide with brighter areas of the X-ray data.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.Hughes et al
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #supernova
Read more
Read more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA Media Usage Guidelines
Tags: NASA NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center NASA Marshall Marshall MSFC Solar System & Beyond astronomy astrophysics Chandra X-Ray Observatory supernova SNR 0509-67.5
NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance leadership gather for a group photo on Thursday, April 25, 2024, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the second and final day of a Flight Test Readiness Review for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are the first to launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:34 p.m. ET on Monday, May 6. Photo credit: NASA/Mike Chambers
NASA image use policy.
Tags: NASA KSC Kennedy Space Center Boeing CCP Commercial Crew Program ULA United Launch Alliance Atlas V Starliner CFT Crew Flight Test ISS International Space Station NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore Suni Williams SLC-41 Cape canaveral