Röntgen Satellite
An artist's conception of ROSAT. (Credit: MPE)
Lifetime: June 1990 - February 1999
Operators (primary): Germany, United States, United Kingdom
Primary Science
The Röntgen Satellite, or ROSAT for short, was a dedicated X-ray observatory. It's first year was dedicated to an all-sky survey. In it's subsequent years, it made pointed observations for deep studies of a wide variety of X-ray objects.
Science Highlights
- Performed an all-sky survey, catloging more than 150,000 objects
- Detected more than 100,000 serendipitous sources
- Detailed study of the X-ray structure of supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies
- Discovery of X-ray emission from comets