Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO)
One of NASA's Great Observatories in Earth orbit, launched in July 1999, and
named after S.
Chandrasekhar. It was previously named the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics
Facility (AXAF).
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a space telescope launched on STS-93 by NASA on
July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 100 times fainter than any
previous X-ray telescope, enabled by the high angular resolution of its
mirrors. Since the Earth's atmosphere absorbs
the vast majority of X-rays, they
are not detectable from Earth-based telescopes;
therefore space-based telescopes are required to make these observations.
Chandra is an Earth satellite in a 64 hour orbit, and its mission is
ongoing as of 2012.
Chandra Observatory is the third
of NASA's four Great Observatories. The
first wasHubble Space Telescope; second the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory,
launched in 1991; and last is the Spitzer Space Telescope. Of those four, three continue;
Compton ended in 2000. Chandra has been described as being as revolutionary to
astronomy as Galileo's first telescope.
It was named in honor of the
Nobel-prize winning physicist S. Chandrasekhar who worked for University of Chicago from 1937 until he died in 1995. He was known
for determining the maximum mass for white
dwarfs. "Chandra" means "moon" in Sanskrit. Before
1998, it was known as AXAF,
the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics
Facility.
Source: wikipedia, NASA
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