Related papers: X-Ray Optics for Astrophysics: a historical review
X-ray observatories contribute fundamental advances in Solar System studies by probing Sun-object interactions, developing planet and satellite surface composition maps, probing global magnetospheric dynamics, and tracking astrochemical…
Astronomical X-ray polarimetry was first explored in the end of the 60's by pioneering rocket instruments. The craze arising from the first discoveries on stellar and supernova remnant X-ray polarization led to the addition of X-ray…
Recent X-ray observations have had a major impact on topics ranging from protostars to cosmology. They have also drawn attention to important and general physical processes that currently limit our understanding of thermal and nonthermal…
High-energy astrophysics is a relatively young scientific field, made possible by space-borne telescopes. During the half-century history of x-ray astronomy, the sensitivity of focusing x-ray telescopes-through finer angular resolution and…
Astronomy is by nature a visual science. The high quality imagery produced by the world's observatories can be a key to effectively engaging with the public and helping to inspire the next generation of scientists. Creating compelling…
The discovery of X-ray emission from cosmic sources in the 1960s has opened a new powerful observing window on the Universe. In fact, the exploration of the X-ray sky during the 70s-90s has established X-ray astronomy as a fundamental field…
In this chapter, we briefly review the history of X-ray astronomy through its missions. We follow a temporal development, from the first instruments onboard rockets and balloons to the most recent and complex space missions. We intend to…
I summarize the excitement of my role primarily in the early years of X-ray Astronomy. As a "second-generation" X-ray astronomer, I was privileged to participate in the enormous advance of the field, both technically and astrophysically,…
Star-forming regions have been the targets of X-ray observations since the dawn of satellite X-ray astronomy. The increase in sensitivity and/or spatial resolution offered by XMM-Newton and Chandra allows a dramatic improvement, both…
X-ray polarimetry is now providing a new way to look at the high energy sky. The addition of two observables, polarization fraction and angle, reveals crucial new information on the structure of accretion flows and magnetic fields in…
X-ray diffraction gratings play an essential role in high-resolution spectroscopy of astrophysical phenomena. We present some scientific highlights from the X-ray grating spectrometers (XGS) on board of the Chandra and XMM/Newton missions,…
Whether it is fluorescence emission from asteroids and moons, solar wind charge exchange from comets, exospheric escape from Mars, pion reactions on Venus, sprite lighting on Saturn, or the Io plasma torus in the Jovian magnetosphere, the…
The maturity of current detectors based on technologies that range from solid state to gases renewed the interest for X-ray polarimetry, raising the enthusiasm of a wide scientific community to improve the performance of polarimeters as…
Einstein's general theory of relativity not only revolutionized human understanding of the universe, but also brought many gravitational applications in large scale, such as gravitational-wave astronomy, gravitational lensing, and the…
Grazing incidence mirrors for X-ray astronomy are usually designed in the parabola-hyperbola (Wolter I) configuration. This design allows for optimal images on-axis, which however degrade rapidly with the off-axis angle. Mirror surfaces…
Soon after the discovery of the first extrasolar X-Ray sources it was suggested that polarimetry could play a major role as a diagnostic tool. Attempts to measure polarization of X-Ray sources was performed by the team of Columbia…
Modern X-ray observatories yield unique insight into the astrophysical time domain. Each X-ray photon can be assigned an arrival time, an energy and a sky position, yielding sensitive, energy-dependent light curves and enabling…
High-resolution x-ray microscopy requires a high photon flux to measure the signal from weakly scattering samples. This exposes samples to high radiation doses, potentially damaging or destroying them through radiation damage. In this work,…
Fresnel lenses offer the possibility of concentrating the flux of X-rays or gamma-rays flux falling on a geometric area of many square metres onto a focal point which need only be a millimetre or so in diameter (and which may even be very…
Adaptive Optics is a prime example of how progress in observational astronomy can be driven by technological developments. At many observatories it is now considered to be part of a standard instrumentation suite, enabling ground-based…