CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -China entered the orbital X-ray astronomy game last week as a Long March 4B rocket roared to life, hoisting the nation’s first astronomical observatory into space.

Detailed explanation-2: -The first imaging X-ray telescope was made by a team of scientists under the direction of Riccardo Giacconi at American Science and Engineering in Cambridge, MA. It was flown on a small sounding rocket in 1963 and made crude images of hot spots in the upper atmosphere of the Sun.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999.

Detailed explanation-4: -On July 23, 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched, carried by the Space Shuttle Columbia from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. About a month later, on Aug. 26, 1999, the first powerful images from Chandra were provided to the public.

Detailed explanation-5: -The first X-ray telescope was the Apollo Telescope Mount, which studied the Sun from on board the American space station Skylab. It was followed during the late 1970s by two High-Energy Astronomy Observatories (HEAOs), which explored cosmic X-ray sources.