An overview of the Chandra mission and goals, Chandra's namesake, top 10 facts.
Classroom activities, printable materials, interactive games & more.
Overview of X-ray Astronomy and X-ray sources: black holes to galaxy clusters.
All Chandra images released to the public listed by date & by category
Current Chandra press releases, status reports, interviews & biographies.
A collection of multimedia, illustrations & animations, a glossary, FAQ & more.
A collection of illustrations, animations and video.
Chandra discoveries in an audio/video format.
Q&A: Chandra Mission

Q:
If you pointed Chandra at Earth, what would it see?

A:
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On the daylight side, Chandra would see lots of X-rays reflected from the atmosphere. These X-rays are produced by collisions of high-energy particles from the Sun with the atmosphere. X-rays from the radiation belts that surround the Earth would be detected. In any event, the daylight Earth is too bright to observe with Chandra. The X-rays would swamp the detectors and possibly damage them. The nighttime X-ray flux would be would be less intense, but the radiation belt X-rays would still pose a problem.
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