"Micro-X" rocket tagged posts

A Northwestern University astrophysics team is aiming for the stars—well, a dead star, that is.

On Aug. 21, the NASA-funded team will launch its “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket will spend 15 minutes in space—just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately 11,000 light-years away from Earth. Then, the rocket will parachute back to Earth, landing in the desert—about 45 miles from the launchpad—where the Northwestern team will recover its payload.

Short for “high-resolution microcalorimeter Xray imaging rocket,” the Micro-X rocket will carry a superconductor-based X-ray imaging spectrometer that is capable of measuring t...