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#x-ray vision
nasa · 2 years
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Why Do X-Ray Mirrors Look So Unusual?
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Does the object in this image look like a mirror? Maybe not, but that’s exactly what it is! To be more precise, it’s a set of mirrors that will be used on an X-ray telescope. But why does it look nothing like the mirrors you’re familiar with? To answer that, let’s first take a step back. Let’s talk telescopes.
How does a telescope work?
The basic function of a telescope is to gather and focus light to amplify the light’s source. Astronomers have used telescopes for centuries, and there are a few different designs. Today, most telescopes use curved mirrors that magnify and focus light from distant objects onto your eye, a camera, or some other instrument. The mirrors can be made from a variety of materials, including glass or metal.
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Space telescopes like the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes use large mirrors to focus light from some of the most distant objects in the sky. However, the mirrors must be tailored for the type and range of light the telescope is going to capture—and X-rays are especially hard to catch.
X-rays versus mirrors
X-rays tend to zip through most things. This is because X-rays have much smaller wavelengths than most other types of light. In fact, X-rays can be smaller than a single atom of almost every element. When an X-ray encounters some surfaces, it can pass right between the atoms!
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Doctors use this property of X-rays to take pictures of what’s inside you. They use a beam of X-rays that mostly passes through skin and muscle but is largely blocked by denser materials, like bone. The shadow of what was blocked shows up on the film.
This tendency to pass through things includes most mirrors. If you shoot a beam of X-rays into a standard telescope, most of the light would go right through or be absorbed. The X-rays wouldn’t be focused by the mirror, and we wouldn’t be able to study them.
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X-rays can bounce off a specially designed mirror, one turned on its side so that the incoming X-rays arrive almost parallel to the surface and glance off it. At this shallow angle, the space between atoms in the mirror's surface shrinks so much that X-rays can't sneak through. The light bounces off the mirror like a stone skipping on water. This type of mirror is called a grazing incidence mirror.
A metallic onion
Telescope mirrors curve so that all of the incoming light comes to the same place. Mirrors for most telescopes are based on the same 3D shape — a paraboloid. You might remember the parabola from your math classes as the cup-shaped curve. A paraboloid is a 3D version of that, spinning it around the axis, a little like the nose cone of a rocket. This turns out to be a great shape for focusing light at a point.
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Mirrors for visible and infrared light and dishes for radio light use the “cup” portion of that paraboloid. For X-ray astronomy, we cut it a little differently to use the wall. Same shape, different piece. The mirrors for visible, infrared, ultraviolet, and radio telescopes look like a gently-curving cup. The X-ray mirror looks like a cylinder with very slightly angled walls.
The image below shows how different the mirrors look. On the left is one of the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s cylindrical mirrors. On the right you can see the gently curved round primary mirror for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy telescope.
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If we use just one grazing incidence mirror in an X-ray telescope, there would be a big hole, as shown above (left). We’d miss a lot of X-rays! Instead, our mirror makers fill in that cylinder with layers and layers of mirrors, like an onion. Then we can collect more of the X-rays that enter the telescope, giving us more light to study.
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Nested mirrors like this have been used in many X-ray telescopes. Above is a close-up of the mirrors for an upcoming observatory called the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM, pronounced “crism”), which is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)-led international collaboration between JAXA, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The XRISM mirror assembly uses thin, gold-coated mirrors to make them super reflective to X-rays. Each of the two assemblies has 1,624 of these layers packed in them. And each layer is so smooth that the roughest spots rise no more than one millionth of a millimeter.
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Why go to all this trouble to collect this elusive light? X-rays are a great way to study the hottest and most energetic areas of the universe! For example, at the centers of certain galaxies, there are black holes that heat up gas, producing all kinds of light. The X-rays can show us light emitted by material just before it falls in.
Stay tuned to NASA Universe on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the latest on XRISM and other X-ray observatories.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
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ectospacecadet · 11 months
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DannyMay23 Day 10: Bones ——— I had an MRI done today, Danny had an X-Ray
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n64retro · 1 year
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pd
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coffeedealer07 · 7 months
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I honestly forgot danny had x-ray vision 💀💀💀
Would be useful to use when searching for something or someone 💀
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vintagenews · 1 year
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Source and details.
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stone-cold-groove · 3 months
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Looks as though someone has a bad case of the sciences.
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naked-atelier · 1 year
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Artist painting nude picture of female model
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cyberjack · 6 months
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miscellaneous-art · 11 months
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''Les rayons X. Marco Marcovici, éditeur, Bruxelles'' © Bibliothèques d'Université Paris Cité - Histoire de la Santé Cartes postales de radiologie: la Collection Guy et Marie-José Pallardy
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panickedscribbles · 2 years
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Headcanon that Clark Kent absolutely loves taking/having pictures of people. He’ll regularly commission Jimmy to take photos of friends and family, he always uses those photo booths whenever he’s out with someone, he trawls through the Watchtower/Hall of Justice/ whatever base the League is using at the time to find good shots of his fellow heroes. He does it all because its nice to be able to look at the people he loves without seeing meat and skeletons every time he loses focus.
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nicolagriffith · 2 years
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Fab podcast interview!
in which I talk to Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight on X-Ra Vision about SPEAR and HILD, #CripLit and Queer Lit, and how all my books are about answering a specific question.
In which—after Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight say lovely things about HILD (1:06:00)—we talk (1:15:06) about SPEAR and HILD, my fantasy origin story & centring the Other, Talking Rabbits, nature & journeys, queer lit and #criplit, answering questions with hard work, guessing, and alcohol, MENEWOOD, and why for me writing is the best job in the world. Listen to X-Ray Vision here.
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View On WordPress
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leophnyx · 2 months
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Also I've developed what can only be described as "x-ray vision". It's a throwback to what we experienced our first near full shift. I'm "seeing" through objects if I look hard enough, I can even see through myself. The inner foundation of the house I live in, even the beating of my organs, it's all visible to me. It's not literal x-ray vision (and in all honesty I don't even know if the placement of what I'm seeing is correct) but it's the likeness of x-ray vision.
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chloeworships · 4 months
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This friend needs to go to the doctor ASAP!!!
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steelclarkkent · 1 year
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The X-Ray Vision Guy • 11x14 (2023
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