Lecture on 19 July about X-ray Observatory

I recently got an e-mail announcing a lecture at the Challenger Learning Center in downtown Tallahassee (on Kleman Plaza) about "X-ray Astrophysics and the Chandra X-ray Observatory". The one hour lecture is at 1:00 pm on Thursday, July 19. There is convenient parking in the Kleman Plaza ramp, and sometimes at the meters along Park Avenue a few blocks north.

Click on the image at right to read the full announcement and details about the lecture. These NASA touring lectures are usually well prepared and understandable to the general public, so I would not expect an overly technical talk until the questions at the end.

This "observatory" is a spacecraft (launched from the Space Shuttle) carrying a very sophisticated X-ray telescope. It has been used to study black holes (including the one at the center of our galaxy), supernovae, and to provide evidence of the existence of dark matter. Because x rays would rather go through something than reflect off of it, designing an x-ray mirror and the associated "optics" was a major accomplishment that will probably be discussed in the talk.

You can read more about this device on the NASA web site and the one for the Harvard-based facility that operates it, among others.