X-Ray in Astronomy

Astronomers study light from all across the electromagnetic spectrum to piece together the story of the universe.  X-ray astronomy looks at high energy, short wavelength light – over 40 times smaller than the shortest wavelength our eyes can detect.  This light, emitted by gas heated to millions of degrees, provides a glimpse into extreme environments like black holes, neutron stars, and colliding galaxies.

"The beginnings of X-ray astronomy had to be a very interesting period", says Maria Santos-Lleo, of XMM-Newton. "They were discovering that the universe was populated by objects with amazingly hot gas, material heated at several million degrees". It was an unexpected discovery. Scientists knew the Sun was a source of X rays and wanted to measure this radiation reflected by the Moon. They designed an experiment to study fluorescence X-rays produced on the lunar surface by X rays from the Sun, and to explore the night sky for other possible sources. Please read about X-ray astronomers celebrate 50 years of observing the warmest sky in this website.



By : Nella Faras