Astrophysical Sciences and Technology Colloquium: The soft X-ray background: 50 years of discovery in X-ray Astrophysics through Sounding Rockets
Astrophysical Sciences and Technology Colloquium
The soft X-ray background: 50 years of discovery in X-ray Astrophysics through Sounding Rockets
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Dr. F. Scott Porter
Head of X-ray Astrophysics
Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA
Event Details: The field of X-ray Astronomy is relatively young since the field is a direct off-shoot of the space-age. Since X-rays don’t significantly penetrate the atmosphere, the field did not originate until 1962 when the first instruments were launched on suborbital rockets that could reach above 160km altitude. The earliest discoveries were incredibly bright x-ray sources that we now know to be some of the most violent regions of the universe, in addition to a universal X-ray glow that originates from the entire sky. In the hard x-ray band, we know this is due to a large number of unresolved active galactic nuclei, but in the soft band, this has been a mystery that has persisted for over five decades. Here we will discuss the origin of the local, soft x-ray background and its 50-year history of discovery through over 20 suborbital rocket flights and multiple large orbiting X-ray observatories.
Bio: Dr. F. Scott Porter is the head of X-ray Astrophysics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He has spent the last 35 years developing astrophysical instrumentation and launching it on over 20 missions of all scales from suborbital sounding rockets to large orbiting observatories. His scientific interests include the soft diffuse x-ray background, galactic halos, clusters of galaxies, laboratory astrophysics, and atomic physics.
Intended Audience:
All are Welcome!
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Event Snapshot
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Open to the Public
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