X-ray observatory calls it quits.After an 8-year mission in which it generated an X-ray map of the entire sky and recorded high-energy radiation from objects as far away as quasars Proper naming of quasars are by Catalogue Entry, Qxxxx±yy using B1950 coordinates, or QSO Jxxxx±yyyy using J2000 coordinates. This page lists quasars.
ROSAT was equipped with three X-ray cameras. Two of the devices were position-sensitive proportional counters Noun 1. proportional counter - counter tube whose output pulse is proportional to number of ions produced proportional counter tube boron counter tube - a proportional counter tube for counting neutrons . One of these was damaged in 1991 by overexposure overexposure too long an exposure time or too high a milliamperage causing too black a picture, loss of detail and some anomalies of translucency. to the sun. The remaining counter, which detects X rays by recording their interaction with gas molecules, has run out of gas. Unlike the X-ray cameras, ROSAT's wide-field camera, which images objects in the extreme ultraviolet, still functions. However, it has lost sensitivity, and the operating agencies agreed that it was not worthwhile to continue the mission with only this device working, says Robert Petre of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Md. |
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