Harvard, NASA take picture of Milky Way from Cambridge, more or less

Harvard/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory photo

NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory is a telescope orbiting the earth and controlled from a building within walking distance of Paddy’s Lunch. Despite that, the Harvard-run satellite is tracking down X-ray emissions exploded stars, galaxy clusters and the areas surrounding black holes.

Harvard’s Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which operates the telescope, has released detailed images and video of the Milky Way. The image above is actually a mosaic of 88 separate “pictures” taken by the telescope. Check out the observatory web site for all kind of interactive animations and high-resolution images.

Posted by Brendan Lynch

Tags: Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Harvard, NASA, Paddy's Lunch, Smithsonian Astrophusical Observatory

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Defense, Education & Training, Hardware, Massachusetts, Public Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.