Major Launch to Give Unprecedented View of Space
On Saturday, August 26, Japan’s JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA will launch the XRISM initiative (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission), promising to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos. The collaboration between the two space agencies will utilize a telescope called Resolve, which is a microcalorimeter spectrometer capable of measuring X-ray energies from observed objects.
Resolve’s ability to measure the “fingerprints” of X-ray energies will provide a clearer and more detailed view of objects in space. By creating visible color spectra out of invisible X-rays, the telescope will allow scientists to observe exploding stars, near-light-speed particle jets powered by black holes, and wildly swirling galaxy clusters in unprecedented detail. The telescope can analyze X-ray energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts, providing insights into the evolution of the universe and the structure of spacetime.
“With current instruments, we’re only capable of seeing these fingerprints in a comparatively blurry way,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist at Goddard. “Resolve will effectively give X-ray astrophysics a spectrometer with a magnifying glass.”
The temperature range targeted by the XRISM telescope is vast, illustrated in a fascinating graphic by NASA. It reaches all the way up to the hottest temperature ever recorded, which is an eye-popping 9.9 trillion degrees Fahrenheit, achieved at the Large Hadron Collider. By comparison, our own sun’s corona, at 5.4 million degrees Fahrenheit, seems rather chilly. For those seeking a visual treat, NASA has provided a spectroscopy explainer on YouTube, along with stunning photos captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
The XRISM initiative marks an exciting development in space exploration and will provide researchers with an unparalleled understanding of some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe. It is a significant step forward in our quest to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos and expand our knowledge of the “dark universe.”