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Broad Band X-ray Telescope

The Astro-1 observatory mounted on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

The Astro-1 observatory mounted on the Space Shuttle Columbia. (Credit: NASA)

Lifetime: December 1990

Country (primary): United States

Primary Science

The Broad Band X-ray Telescope, or BBXRT for short, was designed as the first focusing X-ray telescope to operate over a borad energy range (0.3 to 12 keV) with a moderate energy resolution. It was flown on the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-35) as part of the Astro-1 payload (which also included three ultraviolet telescopes).

Science Highlights

  • Resolved the iron K line in the binaries Centarus X-3 and Cygnus X-2
  • Detected evidence of line broadening in NGC 4151
  • Studied the cooling flow in clusters of galaxies

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