The study of celestial bodies using their X-ray emission. X-ray astronomy deals mainly with Galactic and extragalactic phenomena involving very high-energy photon emissions, covering a band of energie
s between 0.1 keV and 500 keV. The research field includes: X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, pulsars, black holes, dark matter, active galaxies, galactic clusters X-ray transients. The Earth's atmosphere absorbs most X-rays coming from outer space. X-ray astronomy therefore requires observations to be done above atmosphere. The first rocket flight which successfully detected a cosmic source of X-ray emission was launched in 1962 by an American research group. A very bright source was detected that they named Scorpius X-1. Since then several dedicated X-ray astronomy satellites have been launched, among which: Uhuru, INTEGRAL, ROSAT, Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), Chandra X-ray Observatory, and XMM-Newton, which have contributed to important advances in astronomy.
A binary star system where one of the stars has evolved and collapsed into an extremely dense body such as a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. The enormous gravitational attraction of the
massive, dense, but dim component pulls material from the brighter, less massive star in an accretion disk. The gravitational potential energy of the accreted matter is converted to heat by viscosity and eventually to high-energy photons in the X-ray range. The brightest X-ray binary is Scorpius X-1.
A binary star system where one of the stars has evolved and collapsed into an extremely dense body such as a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. The enormous gravitational attraction of the
massive, dense, but dim component pulls material from the brighter, less massive star in an accretion disk. The gravitational potential energy of the accreted matter is converted to heat by viscosity and eventually to high-energy photons in the X-ray range. The brightest X-ray binary is Scorpius X-1.