Six Years of Science with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory
Thursday September 22, 2005
Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf
Project Scientist, Chandra X-ray Observatory Chief Scientist for X-ray Astronomy, Marshall Space Flight Center
The Chandra X-ray Observatory had its origins in a 1963 proposal led by
Riccardo Giacconi that called for a 1-meter diameter, 1-arcsecond class
X-Ray telescope for studying the Universe in X-rays. We will briefly
discuss the history of the mission, the development of the hardware, its
testing, and the launch on 1999, July 23. The remainder of the talk will be
an admittedly eclectic review of some of the most exciting scientific
highlights. These include the detection and identification of the first
source seen with Chandra - an unusual Seyfert 1 we nicknamed Leon X-1, the
detailed study of the Crab Nebula and its pulsar, and spectacular images of
other supernova remnants including a 1-Million second exposure on
Cas A. We also will summarize some of the major Chandra findings for normal
and active galaxies and we will illustrate the breadth of science enabled
by Chandra observations of clusters of galaxies and then implications for cosmology.
Brief bio