X-Ray Telescope Will Balloon Into the Stratosphere To Look At Black Holes
Cygnus X-1 Artist's view of the binary system Cygnus X-1, which will be one of the targets for the X-ray polarization instrument X-Calibur, scheduled to be in the air in fall 2013 or spring 2014. ESO/M. Kornmesser It's tough to get a new space telescope funded - there are all kinds of budget disputes and delays that can make it difficult to ever get off the ground. Perhaps using a balloon is one cheaper solution. NASA just funded a new X-ray observatory that will float in the upper atmosphere for a day, staring at suspected black holes. The experiment, called X-Calibur, will fly in concert with a satellite instrument called the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer (GEMS), and together they will examine the way that space warps in response to a spinning black hole's gravity. X-Calibur is designed to study the polarization degree and direction of X-rays, which can be...