Name This Satellite
Explanation:
Can you name this satellite? In December, NASA's third
Great Observatory is planned for launch.
The two NASA Great Observatories currently in orbit are the
Hubble Space Telescope and the
Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, both now
named for
famous
scientists.
But after whom should the
Advanced
X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF)
be named? If your submitted suggestion conforms with
contest rules
and is chosen, you will have named the
most powerful X-ray satellite ever built, and may even
win a prize.
AXAF
is the size of a bus, has
strange mirrors polished to
atomic smoothness, and will produce
X-ray
images five times clearer of objects twice as faint as
any previous X-ray satellite.
This should allow
AXAF
the ability to see
X-rays emitted near small
black holes, from distant
active galaxies, and
inside huge
clusters of galaxies.
Astronomers now hope for an uneventful launch, routine operations,
and spectacular discoveries.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
