The United States launches a rocket into space for 15 minutes: why is it needed

A NASA-funded team of scientists will launch a Micro-X rocket from the White Sands Range in southern New Mexico 21

 August.She will spend only 15 minutes in space. However, this time is enough to quickly photograph the remnant of the supernova Cassiopeia A. This is a star in the constellation Cassiopeia that exploded approximately 11,000 light years from Earth. Then the rocket with a parachute will return to Earth and land in the desert—about 72 km from the launch pad.


Credit: Northwestern University

The name Micro-X translates as"high-resolution microcalorimetric X-ray rocket". It will be equipped with an X-ray spectrometer based on a superconductor. It measures the energy of every incoming X-ray beam from astronomical sources with unprecedented precision.

The supernova remnant is so hot that a largeSome of the light it emits is beyond the visible range. Therefore, scientists will create an X-ray image. It is impossible to make it from Earth - the planet’s atmosphere absorbs radiation of this type.


Cassiopeia A. Photo: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart

Although Micro-X will launch from New Mexico, the rocketand the payload was built at the Figueroa-Feliciano Laboratory on Northwestern University's Evanston campus. The tricky part is keeping superconducting detectors at extremely low temperatures—just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, even as they heat up as they leave the atmosphere. The team solved this problem using a special “thermos” filled with liquid helium. The heat and vibrations of the rocket skin do not affect it during flight.

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