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WHAT WILL ASTRO-E2 DO?
The clip opens with an animation of Astro-E2 orbiting the Earth. Dr. Kim Weaver discusses what Astro-E2 will do, and we see:
(1) An animation of a supernova explosion, as a star violently explodes and spreads material through space.
(2) A black hole circled by a swirling accretion disk of matter.
(3) The Sun's corona, visible during a solar eclipse.
(4) A cluster of galaxies surrounded by gas.
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KIM WEAVER: Astro-E2 is going to be looking at a number of things. It'll be looking at supernova remnants to understand the chemical elements created when a star explodes. It's going to be looking at accretion disks around black holes to study the gravitational effects of a black hole on the accretion disk. It's going to be looking at the corona of stars. Our Sun has a really hot corona and it gives off X-rays, so we'll be looking at coronae of other stars to see how they behave if they're similar to the Sun. And also Astro-E2 will look at clusters - the hot X-ray gas in the center of clusters - to understand the temperature of the cluster, the mass of the cluster and that way you can sort of probe the universe by looking at clusters of galaxies. |
