The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE)
Department:
Astrotech
Teaser:
"The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) is a satellite that observes the fast-moving, high-energy worlds of black holes, neutron stars, X-ray pulsars and bursts of X-rays that light up the sky and then disappear forever."
Source:
Top Goddard Space Flight Center News, Videos, and Blogs - ScienceBlips Download time: Jul 2 2010 3:34 PM ET
The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) is a satellite that observes the fast-moving, high-energy worlds of black holes, neutron stars, X-ray pulsars and bursts of X-rays that light up the sky and then disappear forever.
How fast and how energetic are they? Well, some pulsars spin faster than a thousand times a second. And a neutron star produces a gravitational pull so powerful that a marshmallow striking the star's surface would hit with the force of a thousand hydrogen bombs. Astronomers study changes that happen from microseconds to months in cosmic objects to learn about how gravity works near black holes, how pulsars in binary systems are affected by mass transferring from one star to the other, and how the giant engines in distant galaxies are powered.
Launched aboard a Delta rocket on Dec. 30, 1995, the satellite originally bore the name X-Ray Timing Explorer. NASA renamed it the Bruno B. Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer in February 1996. Rossi was a pioneer in both x-ray astronomy and space plasma physics who discovered the first space-based source of x-rays not emanating from the sun. He had passed away in 1993.…
Also see ScienceDaily.com.
