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Mahesh

08/09/23 12:56 PM IST

Japan launches rocket with lunar lander and X-ray telescope

In News
  • Japan’s Moon lander mission called SLIM launched recently morning after several weather-caused postponements.
X-ray Telescope
  • The H-IIA rocket that launched the mission also carried the XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) that is a collaboration between NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ). XRISM separated from the rocket about 14 minutes after launch.
  • The XRISM mission has two instruments—Resolve and Xtend developed in collaboration by both space agencies. Resolve is “microcalorimeter spectrometer.” When an X-ray hits the instrument’s 6×6 pixel detector, the energy causes a tiny increase in temperature.
  • The instrument can measure each individual X-ray’s energy to provide information about the source including composition, motion and physical state.
  • XRISM’s second instrument, on the other hand, was wholly developed by JAXA. It gives XRISM the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date, according to NASA. It observes an area that corresponds to 60 per cent larger than the average apparent size of the full moon.
  • X-rays have wavelengths so short that they can pass in between the atoms of the dish-shaped mirrors that are used to capture visible, infrared and ultraviolet light.
  • Instead of those mirrors, astronomers use curved nested mirrors that are turned on their sides. X-rays skip off these surfaces like stones on a water body, until they hit the detectors.
Source- The hindu

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