Chandra: Exploring the Invisible Universe Sources: NASA and
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. NASA's most
powerful X-ray telescope, called the Chandra X-ray Observatory
(CXO), was launched from the space shuttle Columbia on July 23,
1999. The spacecraft could remain in orbit for 25–50 years and
the scientific mission should last about 5–15 years. Named in
honor of the late Indian-American Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan
Chandrasekhar, it was formerly known as the Advance X-ray
Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). X-rays are a high energy,
invisible form of light. They are produced in the cosmos when
gas is heated to millions of degrees by violent and extreme
conditions. Much of the matter in the universe is so hot that it
can be observed only with X-ray telescopes. The CXO is designed
to study some of the great mysteries of the universe such as
flaring stars, exploding stars, black holes, and vast clouds of
hot gas in galaxy clusters. The telescope has eight times
greater resolution and is 20 to 50 times more