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NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory Celebrates 25 Years With Impressive Cosmic Images

Since its launch in 1999, Chandra has helped unravel cosmic mysteries, supported the research of thousands of astronomers, and maintained its status as a cornerstone of astrophysical research.

The 25 most interesting images taken by the Chandra Space Telescope in its 25 years so far. Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC
The 25 most interesting images taken by the Chandra Space Telescope in its 25 years so far. Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC

To mark the 25th anniversary of its launch, the Chandra Observatory is releasing 25 new, never-before-seen images of a wide variety of cosmic objects.

These images, based on Chandra data, show how X-ray astronomical research reaches all corners of the universe. By combining X-rays from Chandra with observations from other space observatories and ground-based telescopes, as many of these images do, astronomers can tackle the big questions and explore long-standing mysteries across the universe.

Chandra launch and legacy

On July 23, 1999, the space shuttle Columbia was launched into orbit with the Chandra telescope on board, which at the time was the heaviest payload ever carried by a space shuttle. The astronauts aboard Columbia, under the command of Eileen Collins, successfully deployed Chandra into its elliptical orbit, which takes it nearly a third of the way to the moon.

"For 25 years, Chandra has made discovery after discovery and all of them are amazing," said Pat Sline, director of the Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Astronomers have used Chandra to explore mysteries we didn't know about when we built the telescope — including extrasolar planets and dark energy."

Chandra X-ray Observatory Space Telescope

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the most sensitive X-ray telescope ever built. Credit: NASA/CXC/NGST

Effect of X-ray observations

X-rays are light of a particularly penetrating wavelength that reveals very hot objects and very energetic physical processes. Many fascinating regions of space glow brightly in X-rays, such as remnants of exploded stars and material orbiting black holes. Stars, galaxies, and even planets emit X-rays that can be studied with Chandra.

"Chandra has been a great success story for humanity and its pursuit of knowledge," said Andrew Schnell, acting project manager for the Chandra X-ray Observatory at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "Chandra's incredible achievements are made possible by the hard work and perseverance of the team."

The new set of images is a small sample of the nearly 25,000 observations Chandra made during his 25 years in space.

The history of Chandra

In 1976, Riccardo Jaconi and Harvey Tannenbaum first proposed to NASA the mission that would one day become Chandra. Eventually, Chandra was chosen to become one of NASA's "major space observatories," along with the Hubble Space Telescope and the now retired Compton Gamma-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope, each of which observes light at different wavelengths. .

In 2002, Jaconi received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, leading to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources", which laid the foundations for the development and launch of Chandra.

Collaboration and legacy in astronomy

Today, astronomers continue to use Chandra data in collaboration with other powerful telescopes, including NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, IXPE (Polarization X-ray Probe), and many others. For example, in the past year, Chandra's joint work with Webb has led to the discovery of evidence for the two most distant black holes ever seen, and joint work with IXPE has revealed what appears to be a human hand in the study of an X-ray nebula created by a pulsar.

Chandra's science has led to more than 700 doctorates and supported a diverse talent pool of more than 3,500 undergraduate and graduate students, approximately 1,700 postdoctoral fellows, and more than 5,000 unique principal investigators across the US and internationally. The demand for the telescope was extremely high throughout the mission, with only about 20% of the requested observation time being approved.

Scientists have written more than 10,000 published, peer-reviewed papers based on Chandra data, which have accumulated nearly half a million citations, making it one of NASA's most prolific missions in astrophysics.

Chandra's legacy

"We, the members of the STS-93 crew, are very proud of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the brilliant team that built and launched this astronomical treasure," said Eileen Collins, commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia mission that launched Chandra into space in 1999. "Chandra's discoveries continue to amaze and impress us for the past 25 years."

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