Progress in x‐ray astronomy

MAY 01, 1973

Recent satellite studies of celestial x‐ray sources have enabled some binary‐system components to be identified as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and in one case a black hole.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3128050

Riccardo Giacconi

The most significant progress in x‐ray astronomy in the past few years has been brought about by the advent of satellite observatories and by the great number of new radio and optical identifications of cosmic x‐ray sources. Since the discovery, with rocket‐borne instruments, of extrasolar sources of x radiation ten years ago, it has been clear to most experimenters that a very considerable advance in our knowledge could be obtained with satellite instrumentation. The launch on 12 December 1970 of the first small astronomy satellite, UHURU, entirely devoted to x‐ray observations, was expected to lead to the detection of fainter sources with finer angular resolution and positional accuracy, thereby expanding our catalog of celestial x‐ray emitters. What was unexpected was the qualitative change in our understanding of the nature of cosmic x‐ray emitting objects that several new discoveries by UHURU have brought about.

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More about the authors

Riccardo Giacconi, American Science and Engineering, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts.