Listed below are characteristics of satellites, or descriptions of astronomical sources. After reading the background information on Chandra, Astro-E and the microcalorimeter, and Constellation-X, each listed characteristic should be placed in the appropriate place on a three-ring Venn Diagram by their association with the satellites Chandra, Astro-E and/or Constellation-X. Properties of the microcalorimeter may be included as properties of Astro-E. An example of a three ring Venn diagram is shown below. Be sure to label appropriately the Venn diagram.
launched in 1999
will require several rocket missions to launch the entire observatory
consists of four individual satellites
perform detailed studies of blackholes, supernovas, dark matter, origin, evolution, and destiny of the universe
launched in 2000
more quantitative data on abundance, velocity, temperature of gas
superior ability to discriminate amongst different x-rays wavelengths
flies more than 1/3 of the way to the moon
an array of 32 individual microcalorimeters
exquisitely shaped for pairs of mirrors
incorporates a three stage cooling system capable of operating the array at 60 mK for about two years
will be placed 1.5 million miles from Earth
images are 25x sharper than previous x-ray telescopes
designed to study the universe in x-rays
detects broadest range of x-ray wavelengths
focusing power equivalent to the ability to read a newspaper a half a mile away
focus on smaller areas which will exclude picking up signals from external medium of hot gas
X-ray telescopes are one way to observe extremely hot matter with temperature of millions of degrees
data collected in hours instead days
observatory must be placed high above Earth's surface because Earth's atmosphere absorbs X-rays
deployment of observatory commanded by woman
10X higher spectral resolution for detecting emission from Iron
collecting areas 3 square meters which will detect x-ray sources 100x fainter
a high resolution X-ray spectrometer based on a microcalorimeter array, four CCD X-ray cameras, and a hard X-ray telescope
detects and images X-ray sources billions of light years away
Thought Questions
In five minutes, write a summary of the capabilities of the three observatories, based on the Venn diagram. Do the observatories compliment each other? Where are they redundant?
