Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan
On 23 July 1999, simply months earlier than I began college, NASA’s area shuttle Columbia launched with valuable cargo on board. Not solely was it carrying the primary crew to be led by a lady, Eileen Collins, however its main aim was to launch a brand new flagship area telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Chandra was the heaviest payload that NASA’s area shuttles ever carried, and it turned out to be one of many final two accomplished missions by Columbia earlier than it tragically exploded after launch on 1 February 2003.
Chandra was the primary, and to date solely, NASA mission named for an individual of color, the late theoretical astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, identified to his family and friends as Chandra. Chandrasekhar, whose household identify means “moon crown”, made many important contributions to astrophysics. His most vital was determining the Chandrasekhar restrict, the utmost mass a white dwarf stellar remnant will be earlier than it collapses and kinds a black gap.
It’s applicable to call an X-ray telescope mission after a scientist who spent his life occupied with the physics of black holes, as a result of X-ray telescopes play a key position in black gap analysis. X-rays are high-energy mild waves. This implies they’re produced in extraordinarily energetic environments just like the areas round black holes, the place the sturdy gravitational pull resulting from space-time’s excessive distortion causes particles to speed up to very excessive speeds. In different phrases, we see a complete different universe after we take a look at it by the lens of X-ray astronomy quite than the seen wavelengths of extra conventional telescopes.
Importantly, X-ray astronomy can’t be finished from Earth’s floor as a result of our environment blocks X-rays. That’s good for human well being, however not so nice for astronomers. Thus, Chandra serves as a reminder of how vital it’s to maintain low Earth orbit freed from particles: we want to have the ability to safely launch area telescopes that do work we merely can’t handle from the bottom.
I really feel that I’ve grown up with Chandra, and never simply because attending college at Chandra headquarters, now generally known as the Middle for Astrophysics (CfA) in Massachusetts, meant being mistakenly referred to as “Chandra” lots. One in all my undergraduate lab initiatives was calibrating the light-collecting a part of a back-up digicam for Chandra. The next yr, I wrote my undergraduate thesis beneath the supervision of X-ray astronomy professional Martin Elvis. My analysis targeted on winds of particles that fly out of galaxies which might be residence to supermassive black holes. I used Chandra information to analyse what construction these galaxies may take. I do know for a incontrovertible fact that Martin’s letter secured my admission into not less than one PhD programme. In different phrases, with out Chandra, my profession may by no means have launched.
I’m one in every of hundreds of scientists throughout physics and astronomy who can inform an identical story about how Chandra information has offered the inspiration for his or her early profession steps, or who’ve devoted their lives to exploring cosmic mysteries utilizing Chandra. Laura Lopez at The Ohio State College has lengthy used Chandra to analysis supernovae. Daniel Castro, now a employees scientist on the CfA, does the identical. The three of us had been all postdoctoral researchers collectively on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, a part of a technology raised on the ability of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
At this time, after 25 years in orbit, Chandra is beneath menace – not from area particles or the realities of ageing gear, however as a substitute from political winds. US President Joe Biden’s political appointees on the head of NASA not too long ago sought to wind down the undertaking, however the scientific neighborhood has labored with Congress to avoid wasting the mission. However issues gained’t be the identical. The compromise, but to be signed into regulation, entails considerably defunding and limiting the scientific attain of Chandra. There isn’t any scientific argument for doing this, particularly in opposition to the suggestions {of professional} advisors. Even so, NASA has lower grants that had been already promised to scientists, leaving PhD college students and postdoctoral researchers with out anticipated funding that covers the salaries they dwell on.
Chandra deserves higher, and so does its international viewers. Because of Chandra, we now have found new neutron stars and realized about their interiors. Our data of black holes has blossomed. We higher perceive the stellar life cycle and the historical past of our galaxy. We now have been capable of situate the Milky Manner in context, finding out galaxy clusters and studying about how darkish matter is distributed in them. There may be nonetheless time to avoid wasting Chandra, which is a monument to human ingenuity. The actual fact it’s nonetheless going sturdy after 25 years ought to be celebrated, and honoured by persevering with the mission.
Chanda’s week
What I’m studying
A pal gave me a duplicate of Andreea Kindryd’s From Slavery to the Stars: A private journey, and it’s stunning.
What I’m watching
I’ve been watching basic episodes of Star Trek: The Subsequent Era like “Remember Me”.
What I’m engaged on
I’m growing a brand new course that may put together college students to grasp science in social context.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an affiliate professor of physics and astronomy, and a core school member in girls’s research on the College of New Hampshire. Her most up-to-date e book is The Disordered Cosmos: A journey into darkish matter, spacetime, and goals deferred
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