The Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO) is a spacecraft launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on July 23, 1999. The observatory was named in honor of Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Its mission is to observe X-ray emission from high energy regions of the universe.
The CXO is part of NASA’s Great Observatories program, which also includes the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the James Webb Space Telescope. The CXO was designed to take advantage of advances in technology since the launch of previous X-ray telescopes such as Einstein Observatory and ROSAT.
The telescope focuses X-rays using an array of mirrors with a total collecting area of 6000 cm2. The mirrors are arranged in nested pairs, with each successive pair having half the focal length of the previous pair. This design allows for a large field of view while still maintaining a high degree of Resolution .
The telescope’s scientific instruments include four charge coupled device (CCD) arrays and two grating spectrometers. The CCDs are used to image the sky in both direct imaging mode and spectroscopic mode while the gratings are used for higher resolution spectroscopy.
Since its launch, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has made many important discoveries including: evidence for supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies; confirmation that our own Milky Way galaxy contains a central black hole; discovery of “missing” baryons in clusters of galaxies; identification Of new classes Of objects such as ultraluminous X-ray sources; detection Of hot gas around cooling neutron stars; measurement Of expansion rate OF Universe using Type Ia supernovae; mapping dark matter distribution In galaxy clusters through their effect On surrounding hot gas; finding most distant supernova ever seen.