Jul 23 2009
From The Space Library
NASA marked the 10-year anniversary of the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory with the release of the first of three new versions of classic Chandra images. NASA planned to release the other two versions over the following three months. The newly released image showed the remnants of the supernova E0102, located 190,000 light-years away from Earth, in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Chandra had made its first observation of E0102 shortly after its 1999 launch. The observatory had created the new image from recent x-ray data showing the supernova’s outer blast wave and its inner ring of cooler material. This x-ray data had provided astronomers with new information about the geometry of the remnant and the nature of the explosion. Chandra had launched in 1999 from aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, deploying on a five-year mission that had ushered in an unprecedented decade of discovery. Among its achievements, Chandra had provided the strongest evidence to date for the existence of dark matter. Chandra had independently confirmed the existence of dark energy, producing spectacular images of the titanic explosions created when matter swirled toward supermassive black holes.
NASA, “NASA Celebrates Chandra X-ray Observatory’s 10th Anniversary,” news release 09-171, 23 July 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jul/HQ_09-171_Chandra_anniversary.html (accessed 10 August 2011); Space.com, “On 10th Birthday, Chandra Spies Stellar Explosion,” 23 July 2009, http://www.space.com/7039-10thbirthday-chandra-spies-stellar-explosion.html (accessed 16 August 2011).
Astronauts aboard the ISS operated the Japanese robotic arm for the first time, moving two experiments. One of the two experiments would study the effect of the station’s space environment on electronics and devices; the other was an x-ray observatory that would scan the night sky, using an inter-orbit communications system to send images, data, and voice communications to Japan’s Kibo mission control center at Tsukuba Space Center. The ISS’s robotic arm moved the three payloads from JEL to JEF, the porch attached to Japan’s Kibo laboratory. After some initial problems with its grappling device, the 33-foot (10-meter) robotic arm continued its day-long operation as planned. JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata helped to drive the robotic arm. Wakata, Japan’s first long-duration ISS resident, had lived aboard the station since March 2009.
Tariq Malik, “Japanese Experiments Moved to Space Station,” Space.com, 23 July 2009, http://www.space.com/7043-japanese-experiments-moved-space-station.html (accessed 29 August 2011).
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