National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Educators' Corner

Solution to Student Handout for Satellite Venn Diagram

The finished Venn diagram should look like this.

3-ring Venn Diagram

In the listing below, the correct answer is indicated in parentheses.

1. launched in 1999 (Chandra)
   
2. will be launched in 2008 (Con-X)
   
3. consists of four individual satellites (Con-X)
   
4. perform detailed studies of blackholes, supernovas, dark matter, origin, evolution, and destiny of the universe (Chandra, Astro-E, and Con-X)
   
5. launched in 2000 (Astro-E)
   
6. more quantitative data on abundance, velocity, temperature of gas (Con-X)
   
7. superior ability to discriminate amongst different x-rays wavelengths (Con-X and Astro-E)
   
8. flies more than 1/3 of the way to the moon (Chandra)
   
9. an array of 32 individual microcalorimeters (Astro-E)
   
10. exquisitely shaped for pairs of mirrors (Chandra)
    
11. incorporates a three stage cooling system capable of operating the array at 60 mK for about two years (Astro-E)
    
12. will be placed 1.5 million miles from Earth (Con-X)
    
13. images are 25x sharper than previous x-ray telescopes (Chandra)
    
14. designed to study the universe in x-rays (Chandra, Astro-E, and Con-X)
    
15. detects broadest range of x-ray wavelengths(Con-X)
    
16. focusing power equivalent to the ability to read a newspaper a half a mile away (Chandra)
    
17. focus on smaller areas which will exclude picking up signals from external medium of hot gas (Con-X)
    
18. X-ray telescopes are one way to observe extremely hot matter with temperature of millions of degrees (Chandra, Astro-E, and Con-X)
    
19. data collected in hours instead days (Con-X)
    
20. observatory must be placed high above Earth's surface because Earth's atmosphere absorbs X-rays (Chandra, Astro-E, and Con-X)
    
21. deployment of observatory commanded by woman (Chandra)
    
22. 10X higher spectral resolution for detecting emission from Iron (Astro-E)
    
23. collecting areas 3 square meters which will detect x-ray sources 100x fainter (Con-X)
    
24. a high resolution X-ray spectrometer based on a microcalorimeter array, four CCD X-ray cameras, and a hard X-ray telescope (Astro-E)
    
25. detects and images X-ray sources billions of light years away (Chandra, Astro-E, and Con-X)
    

Thought Questions Each satellite represents an improvement over previous satellites. Chandra provides better imaging capabilities than previous satellites, and Astro-E provides better spectral resolution. In addition, Con-X improves spectral resolution beyond that of Astro-E. The satellites are complementary because Chandra provides superior images, while Astro-E and Con-X provide superior spectra. All the satellites must be placed above the Earth's atmosphere in order to study the universe in x-rays.