Beginning Chandra's Next Decade of Discovery

This week, about 200 scientists are gathered in Boston to describe, discuss, and dissect the past ten years of Chandra science. The symposium, dubbed "Chandra's First Decade of Discovery," has some exciting happenings. First, the astronauts from STS-93, the Space Shuttle mission that launched Chandra into orbit back in July 1999, are here. They are going to participate in a session this afternoon on "The History of Chandra." In addition to the astronauts, key scientists responsible for Chandra being the success that it is will be on hand. Tomorrow, Nobel-Prize winner Riccardo Giacconi will address the conference. Dr. Giaconni won the Nobel for physics for his work in the field of X-ray astronomy, including, of course, Chandra.

In between and for the rest of the week, there will talks and posters and informal chats about the discoveries Chandra has made. Also, there will be ideas and discussions about what Chandra might be able to accomplish -- both on its own and in concert with other telescopes -- in the future. We held an informal session this afternoon with some of the brightest young scientists in X-ray astrophysics. They talked about their areas of research, why they thought it was interesting and important, and also what they might want to do in the next decade. And, we captured most of it on video. We'll be posting
snippets of this great panel discussion on this blog so stay tuned.

-Megan Watzke, CXC