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.
After tracking a puzzling X-ray signal from a dying star for decades, astronomers may have finally explained its source: The old star might have destroyed a nearby planet.
Astronomy
Mar 4, 2025
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Chinese astronomers have analyzed the data from NASA's Swift observatory, which extensively observed an outburst of the cataclysmic variable system known as GK Persei. Results of the study, published February 20 on the arXiv ...
Using ESA's XMM-Newton satellite and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, astronomers have observed a young stellar object known as HL Tauri. Results of the observation campaign, presented Feb. 11 on the arXiv pre-print server, ...
Lobster-eye satellite Einstein Probe captured the X-ray flash from a very elusive celestial pair. The discovery opens a new way to explore how massive stars interact and evolve, confirming the unique power of the mission ...
Astronomy
Feb 18, 2025
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The "needle in the haystack" discovery of a powerful explosion from a mysterious unknown object outside our galaxy has excited astronomers.
Astronomy
Feb 17, 2025
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A team of top astronomers including Dr. William Alston, Senior Lecturer in Data Science at the University of Hertfordshire's Center of Astrophysics, has detected unprecedented periodic X-ray pulses from the supermassive black ...
Astronomy
Feb 17, 2025
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65
A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star-forming region called 30 Doradus.
Astronomy
Feb 12, 2025
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Kokoro Hosogi, a physics student at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has achieved a rare honor for an undergraduate: her contributions are being recognized in a study published in the journal Nature. The researcher ...
Astronomy
Feb 12, 2025
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Using the X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), Indian astronomers have observed an X-ray binary system known as GX 9+1. Results of the observational campaign, presented ...
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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