Friday 2 January 2026 9.00am EST
During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned. A Chandra image release was issued on Dec 30 describing observations of the “Champagne Cluster" (RM J130558.9+263048.4) with Chandra and ground-based optical telescopes. This galaxy cluster is named after its discovery date, Dec. 31, 2020, and the bubble-like appearance of the galaxies and the superheated gas seen with Chandra. The Champagne Cluster is a member of a rare class of merging clusters, which includes the well-known Bullet Cluster, where the hot gas in each cluster has collided and slowed down, and there is a clear separation between the hot gas and the most massive galaxy in each cluster. Clusters in this class can provide a unique window into the physics of collisions involving both ordinary and dark matter. For details, see https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2025/champagne/ The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below. |
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Radiation Belts Jan 5
8C1435+638 ACIS-S
Perseuscluster ACIS-I
BOSS1348 ACIS-I Jan 6
SDSSJ080704.32+2102 ACIS-S
2MASXJ01110461-4558 ACIS-S
ACT-CLJ0808.7+1420 ACIS-S
2MASXJ01110461-4558 ACIS-S Jan 7
Perseuscluster ACIS-I
SDSSJ111749.18+0443 ACIS-S
Radiation Belts Jan 8
WISEAJ181745.37+471 ACIS-S
SDSSJ075130.56+3154 ACIS-S
2MASXJ01110461-4558 ACIS-S
SDSSJ075130.56+3154 ACIS-S
2MASXJ01110461-4558 ACIS-S Jan 9
PSZ2G204.24+14.51 ACIS-S
NGC4694 ACIS-S
ACT-CLJ0808.7+1420 ACIS-S
SDSSJ143154.09+2156 ACIS-S
ACT-CLJ0808.7+1420 ACIS-S Jan 10
Radiation Belts
NGC4689 ACIS-S
Perseuscluster ACIS-I Jan 11
ACT-CLJ0302.4-1004 ACIS-S
2RXSJ064310.6+12354 ACIS-S
4XMMJ114051.9-64184 ACIS-S------------------------------------------
All spacecraft subsystems except HRC continued to support nominal operations.
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