X-ray astronomy is the research area focused on detecting, imaging, and spectroscopically analyzing cosmic sources of X-ray photons, typically in the energy range of ~0.1–100 keV. Because Earth’s atmosphere is opaque to X-rays, this field relies on space-based observatories employing grazing-incidence optics, focusing telescopes, and high-resolution detectors such as CCDs, microcalorimeters, and proportional counters. X-ray astronomy probes high-energy astrophysical processes, including accretion onto compact objects, hot intracluster gas, supernova remnants, stellar coronae, and relativistic jets, enabling quantitative studies of extreme environments, plasma conditions, strong gravity, and energetic feedback in galaxies and large-scale structure.
When the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton pointed its telescope at two unidentified sources of light in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud, scientists were able to confirm what seemed an unlikely discovery. They ...
Astronomy
Feb 6, 2025
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On 15 March 2024, Einstein Probe's Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) detected a burst of low-energy X-rays. Astronomers call such X-rays "soft," even though they are still far more energetic than visible or ultraviolet light. ...
Astronomy
Jan 23, 2025
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Using NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft, an international team of astronomers have performed X-ray observations of a nearby low-mass galaxy cluster designated PSZ2 G181.06+48.47. The observational campaign, detailed ...
Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a new study from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's (European Space Agency's) XMM-Newton that examined the effects of X-rays ...
Astrobiology
Jan 17, 2025
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Researchers from the University of Connecticut have created the first 3D maps of star-forming gas clouds in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy, and have studied previous flaring events from our galaxy's supermassive ...
Astronomy
Jan 15, 2025
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International teams of astronomers monitoring a supermassive black hole in the heart of a distant galaxy have detected features never seen before using data from NASA missions and other facilities. The features include the ...
Astronomy
Jan 13, 2025
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One supermassive black hole has kept astronomers glued to their scopes for the last several years. First came a surprise disappearance, and now, a precarious spinning act.
Astronomy
Jan 13, 2025
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207
The long-awaited detection of gravitational waves has opened up a whole new world of astronomy. One of the key efforts is now to tie signals across multiple domains—for example, a gravitational wave and the associated electromagnetic ...
Astronomy
Jan 8, 2025
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A NASA X-ray imager is heading to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis campaign, where it will capture the first global images of the magnetic field that shields Earth from solar radiation.
Planetary Sciences
Jan 3, 2025
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Indian astronomers have performed a multiwavelength study of a gamma-ray emitting compact symmetric object known as DA 362. Results of the study, presented in a research paper published December 17 on the pre-print server ...
