Chandra Documentary Wins Award in Film Festival
Submitted by chandra on Thu, 2024-10-10 08:57
Images from the Raw Science Film Festival Awards Ceremony, featuring
Matthew Modine, Dr. Kim Arcand, Elizabeth Landau, and more.
On Saturday, October 5, the Raw Science Film Festival opened in New York City and the CfA’s Dr. Kimberly Arcand was on hand, along with Elizabeth Landau of NASA HQ, to celebrate the “Listen to the Universe” documentary that won the Industry award for “Best New Media”.
Watch "Listen to the Universe" on NASA+“Listen to the Universe” is a 20-minute documentary produced by the Chandra X-ray Center at the CfA and NASA+ that takes viewers behind the scenes of the team that creates data sonifications.
The Raw Science Film Festival included an awards ceremony featuring a special Q&A with actor/executive producer Matthew Modine, along with screenings and director discussions of "Listen to the Universe" and other selected films. The festival's overall mission is to humanize science and keep fact-based storytelling at the forefront of popular culture.
-Megan Watzke CXC
New Chandra Operations Control Center Opens
Submitted by chandra on Mon, 2019-06-10 13:43
Chandra's New Operations Control Center
A new state-of-the-art facility that will operate NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has opened. This new Operations Control Center, or OCC, will help Chandra continue its highly efficient performance as NASA's premier X-ray observatory.
As the name suggests, the OCC controls the operation of the Chandra spacecraft while it is in orbit, as scientists and engineers design plans for efficiently and safely observing its targets.
Two years before Chandra's launch into space in 1999, NASA awarded the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory a contract to establish the first OCC as part of the Chandra X-ray Center, under the direction of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Northrup Grumman was and continues to be a prime contractor for Chandra, employing many staff members at the OCC.
24 Hours of Light
Submitted by chandra on Mon, 2018-05-14 11:33
Light is something we experience every day. For most people, "light" refers to what humans can detect with our eyes. It is illumination, what ignites our visual sense, the yin to the yang of dark. However, the type of light humans can detect with our eyes is just a small fraction that exists, and the true nature of light is much more expansive.
In many ways, light behaves like a wave and this is the key to understanding its amazing capabilities. How tightly packed — or far apart — the waves are dictates light's properties. For example, the longer the wave, the less energy the light typically carries, and vice versa. Each type of light has its own "super powers" both in their natural forms and in ways sculpted by science and technology.
Picture a piano keyboard. The popular definition of light would inhabit a few keys around middle C, while the rest of the piano represents the full breadth of light and its many forms. On one end of the piano of light, there are radio waves. As you move up through the octaves, there are other forms of light including microwaves, infrared, "visible" light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays.
Chandra’s "Sweet 16"!
Submitted by chandra on Thu, 2015-07-23 10:22
More information at http://chandra.harvard.edu/16th/index.html
Birthdays can be a lot of fun and most teenagers can’t wait to turn sixteen. After all, this birthday often marks new adventures and opportunities (not to mention, maybe a party!)
Today we are celebrating the “sweet 16th” birthday not of a person, but of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. On July 23, 1999, Chandra was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia and has been working diligently to explore the high-energy Universe ever since.
