Hitomi Microcalorimeter Array Animation (4k)
- Visualizations by:
- Scott Wiessinger
- View full credits
This animation illustrates how the microcalorimeter array at the heart of Hitomi's revolutionary Soft X-ray Spectrometer works. X-ray light collected by a telescope strikes the detector. Each photon heats the material by an amount directly proportional to its energy. The instrument, which is cooled to near absolute zero, detects this minute temperature change.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Animator
- Scott Wiessinger (KBRwyle) [Lead]
Project support
- Swarupa Nune (InuTeq)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Related pages
NASA Goddard Spectrometer Launches on Hitomi Observatory
Feb. 22, 2016, 9 a.m.
Read moreASTRO-H, Japan s Tsukuba Space Center in March 2015. Credit: JAXA For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/new-x-ray-space-observatory-to-study-black-holes-and-history-of-galaxy-clusters](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/new-x-ray-space-observatory-to-study-black-holes-and-history-of-galaxy-clusters)
Hitomi Measures X-ray Winds of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster
July 6, 2016, 9 a.m.
Read moreMeasurements of unprecedented detail returned by Japan s core lies a supermassive black hole activated by infalling matter. Glowing filaments extending from the galaxy trace bubbles of gas blown violently outward by the black hole. Despite this activity, Hitomi measurements show that hot cluster gas in the vicinity is moving at cosmically modest speeds. Copyright © 2008 by R. Jay GaBany, used with permission A wide-field visible light (green and red) and near-infrared composite image of the Perseus cluster of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This image is 39 arcminutes across and 29 arcminutes tall. The galaxy at the core of the cluster, NGC 1275, is located near the center. Credit: Robert Lupton and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Consortium This color composite image, recreated from archival Hubble Space Telescope data, shows NGC 1275, the central galaxy in the Perseus galaxy cluster. Filaments of glowing gas, some reaching lengths of 20,000 light-years, extend from the central regions of the galaxy, where an active supermassive black hole resides. Also known by its radio designation Perseus A, NGC 1275 is over 100,000 light-years across and lies about 240 million light-years away.Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Legacy Archive and Al Kelly