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.
Scientists have long been aware of the massive elliptical galaxy, M87. The galaxy was first observed in the late 18th century by Charles Messier, who cataloged objects in the sky specifically to avoid them when looking for ...
A black hole is growing at one of the fastest rates ever recorded, according to a team of astronomers. This discovery from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory may help explain how some black holes can reach enormous masses relatively ...
Astronomy
Sep 19, 2025
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The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) has revealed an unexpected difference between the powerful winds launching from a disk around a neutron star and those from material circling supermassive black holes.
Astronomy
Sep 17, 2025
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Using ESA's INTEGRAL spacecraft, astronomers have detected exceptionally bright X-ray flares from the Cygnus X-1 X-ray binary system. This is the first time that such strong flaring activity has been observed in this system ...
Around 11,300 years ago, a massive star teetered on the precipice of annihilation. It pulsed with energy as it expelled its outer layers, shedding the material into space. Eventually it exploded as a supernova, and its remnant ...
Astronomy
Sep 3, 2025
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An international research team has reported remarkable findings from an XRISM observation of the black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630–472, located in our galaxy. XRISM is an X-ray astronomy satellite developed by Japan in collaboration ...
Astronomy
Aug 20, 2025
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In 2009, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory released a captivating image: a pulsar and its surrounding nebula that is shaped like a hand. Since then, astronomers have used Chandra and other telescopes to continue to observe ...
Astronomy
Aug 20, 2025
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By analyzing the data from NASA's Chandra spacecraft, astronomers have conducted the first X-ray study of a globular cluster known as NGC 6528. Results of the study, published August 13 on the arXivpreprint server, yield ...
A new kind of stellar explosion provides a novel way to probe the distant universe, according to new results published today in Nature Astronomy.
Astronomy
Aug 19, 2025
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Using NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton space observatories, Indian astronomers have explored the population of ultraluminous X-ray sources in the galaxy NGC 5813, which resulted in the detection of a new source of this ...
