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