DXL: NASA launching X-ray emission mission
Monday, December 10, 2012 - 09:30
in Astronomy & Space
NASA will launch an astrophysics mission to study the Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local galaxy (DXL) December 9 from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The goal of this flight is to identify how much of that diffuse x-ray emission comes from our solar system from the solar wind charge exchange process, and how much comes from outside our solar system from hot interstellar plasmas located in interstellar space. The payload incorporates an upgraded University of Wisconsin Aerobee IV instrument (flown on several Aerobee IV rockets from 1973 through 1980) and a prototype wide field-of-view soft x-ray camera.