When a star is born or dies, or when any other very energetic phenomenon occurs in the universe, it emits X-rays, which are high-energy light particles that aren’t visible to the naked eye. These X-rays are the same kind that doctors use to take pictures of broken bones inside the body. But instead of looking at the shadows produced by the bones stopping X-rays inside of a person, astronomers detect X-rays flying through space to get images of events such as black holes and supernovae.Images and spectra – charts showing the distribution of light across different wavelengths from an object – are the two main ways astronomers investigate the universe. Images tell them what things look like and where certain phenomena are happening, while spectra tell them how much energy the photons, or light particles, they are collecting have. Spectra can clue them in to how the event they came from formed. When studying complex objects, they need both imaging and spectra.Scientists and engineers designed the Chandra X-ray Observatory to detect these X-rays. Since 1999, Chandra’s data has given astronomers incredibly detailed images of some of the universe’s most dramatic events.Stars forming and dying create supernova explosions that send chemical elements out into space. Chandra watches as gas and stars fall into the deep gravitational pulls of black holes, and it bears witness as gas that’s a thousand times hotter than the Sun escapes galaxies in explosive winds. It can see when the gravity of huge masses of dark matter trap that hot gas in gigantic pockets.On the left is the Cassiopeia A supernova. The image is about 19 light years across, and different colors in the image identify different chemical elements (red indicates silicon, yellow indicates sulfur, cyan indicates calcium, purple indicates iron and blue indicates high energy). …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnWhen a star is born or dies, or when any other very energetic phenomenon occurs in the universe, it emits X-rays, which are high-energy light particles that aren’t visible to the naked eye. These X-rays are the same kind that doctors use to take pictures of broken bones inside the body. But instead of looking at the shadows produced by the bones stopping X-rays inside of a person, astronomers detect X-rays flying through space to get images of events such as black holes and supernovae.Images and spectra – charts showing the distribution of light across different wavelengths from an object – are the two main ways astronomers investigate the universe. Images tell them what things look like and where certain phenomena are happening, while spectra tell them how much energy the photons, or light particles, they are collecting have. Spectra can clue them in to how the event they came from formed. When studying complex objects, they need both imaging and spectra.Scientists and engineers designed the Chandra X-ray Observatory to detect these X-rays. Since 1999, Chandra’s data has given astronomers incredibly detailed images of some of the universe’s most dramatic events.Stars forming and dying create supernova explosions that send chemical elements out into space. Chandra watches as gas and stars fall into the deep gravitational pulls of black holes, and it bears witness as gas that’s a thousand times hotter than the Sun escapes galaxies in explosive winds. It can see when the gravity of huge masses of dark matter trap that hot gas in gigantic pockets.On the left is the Cassiopeia A supernova. The image is about 19 light years across, and different colors in the image identify different chemical elements (red indicates silicon, yellow indicates sulfur, cyan indicates calcium, purple indicates iron and blue indicates high energy). …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
