Transcript Father of the X-Ray

Ways of Seeing
X-Rays
By
Myles Gray
&
Steve Dwyer
Father of the X-Ray
• Wilhelm Conrad
Roentgen was the first
to discover the X-Ray.
He first noted on their
existence on
November 8, 1895.
He noticed that while
he was working in his
laboratory an object
on the other side of the
room began to glow.
Parts of the Spectrum
• All parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are essentially
the same thing: electromagnetic radiation. The only
differences between them all are the frequency and
wavelengths of the different types of waves. X-Rays
are mostly blocked out of the atmosphere because of the
frequency of the waves. Because of this, X-Ray
observatories, like the Chandra, have to be far into
space to collect accurate data. The Chandra is almost
one third of the way to the moon!
X-Rays in the Spectrum
• X-Rays are just one
portion of the
electromagnetic
spectrum. Their
wavelengths are larger
than those of gamma
rays, but smaller then
the wavelengths of all
other portions of the
electromagnetic
spectrum.
A New Frontier
• Perhaps the most
important aspect of the
X-Ray is its use in the
field of medicine. The
first X-Ray photo of
the human body was
taken of the hand of a
corpse by Wilhelm
Roentgen himself in
his laboratory in
Vienna.
A Second Frontier
• The X-Ray has also
become a very useful
tool in the field of
astronomy. The first
X-Ray telescope was
made by American
Science and
Engineering in
Cambridge, MA in
1965.
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
• The most important XRay astronomy mission of
the current decade is
NASA’s Chandra X-Ray
Observatory, which was
launched on July 23,
1999. It contains four sets
off nested mirrors, and is
the premier X-Ray
observatory that has ever
been launched.
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
• The Chandra X-Ray
Observatory has opened
an important door for the
field of astronomy. The
mirrors on the Chandra
have been polished to a
smoothness of a few
atoms. The mirrors are so
strong that they can see
twice as far and with five
times greater detail than
any other X-Ray
telescope.
Jovian X-ray and Ultraviolet
Emissions
 Here is a composite
image of Jupiter taken
by the Chandra
Observatory. The xray pulses are shown
in pink, and the blue
features are ultraviolet
aurorae.
X-Ray Emissions
• This composite was taken by
the Chandra Observatory.
When they looked at this radio
arc (in red), they observed an xray-emitting cloud about 40
light-years wide (blue). These
x-ray-emissions are caused
when electrons from radio
filaments collide with a cloud
of cold gas with a mass millions
of times greater than our sun’s.
X-ray view of the Milky Way
center
• This is a mosaic of 30
Chandra images. The
Milky Way is home to
more than a thousand
white dwarfs, neutron
stars and black holes.
If you possessed x-ray
vision, you would be
able to see this image
instead of the massive
cosmic dust clouds.
Black Holes
• Here is a composite of the
black hole XTE J118+480
taken by the Chandra
Observatory. It is seven
times more massive than
our sun, and takes material
from an orbiting solartype star, and uses that
material to create bursts of
x-rays. Its x-ray spectrum
is shown from the upper
left corner to the lower
right.
Venus in X-ray
• The picture shown on the
left is the first ever photo
taken of Venus in the xray spectrum. The
traditional optical view of
Venus is shown on the
right, and can be seen
through a telescope.
Venus’ x-rays are
produced by fluorescence
rather than reflection.
Incoming solar x-rays
excite atoms in Venus’
atmosphere,
and these atoms emit a
fluorescence x-ray, creating the
glowing effect seen on the left.
Jupiter’s Great X-ray Spot
• The X-ray spots shown on
the poles of Jupiter are
just as surprising to
astronomers today as the
Great Red Spot once was.
The false-color image is
shown on the right and
Jupiter’s x-ray emissions
can be seen on the left,
taken by the Chandra
Observatory.
Bibliography
• http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/top_ten.html
• http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/xrays.html
• www.astronomy.com
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
• “Electromagnetic Radiation” The Visual
Encyclopedia of the Universe
• “X-ray” World Book Encyclopedia