The Universe Darkly (02-29-2008)
When you look up at the night sky, you see a lot of things glowing like stars, planets, and galaxies. So it might sound strange to hear that most of the Universe is actually dark. The truth is the protons, neutrons and electrons that make up everything we can see, and that means everything with telescopes we've got, accounts for only about 4% of the mass and energy of the Universe. The rest is dark and mysterious. More specifically, about 70% of the Universe is what is known as dark energy; about 26% is so-called dark matter. Modern day astronomers have developed many tactics to explore the dark Universe, including using telescopes like Chandra.

Chandra in the (Google) Sky (01-29-2008)
Astronomy is truly in a golden age. With a fleet of space-based observatories, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers now have a suite of amazing tools to study the Universe. Simultaneously to this bonanza in astronomy has been the growth and expansion of the Internet. Think back to before 1990. The Internet was barely a rumor and there were no Great Observatories! But now people are taking advantage of these two seemingly separate advances to do some amazing things

What's in a Name? (01-02-2008)
Names in astronomy don't always tell the whole story. Let's take, for example, radio galaxies. Why, might you ask, would a Chandra podcast talk about such an object? The answer is that radio galaxies are, yes, very bright in radio emission. But they are also powerful emitters of X-rays, optical light and from other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. More than that, they are important objects that really have played a very big role in how the Universe has evolved.

The Truth and Lies about Black Holes (11-30-2007)
Black holes have a bad reputation. After all, something that could swallow you completely sounds pretty scary. They're invisible, so maybe there's one just around the corner and we dont know it! Also, arent they enormous vacuum cleaners capable of destroying anything that gets near them? Once the black hole starts pulling on something, isnt that just a one-way ticket to oblivion? Well, not all of these things are exactly true.

When Will History Repeat Itself? (10-31-2007)
Astronomers think that a supernova should go off in our own Milky Way galaxy every 50 years or so. When was the last one we've seen? Probably 1604. Yes, that's over 400 years ago. This being astronomy however, things will undoubtedly average out over the long run, but in the meantime, we're left without a recent supernova in our Galaxy to study. Luckily for us, astronomers from previous centuries were on the case.

In A Galaxy Far, Far Away and Also Those Nearby (09-28-2007)
"In a galaxy far, far away..." These are some of the most famous words in movie history. But what do we already know about galaxies, and what do astronomers, like those using the Chandra X- ray Observatory, still hope to learn about them?

From First Light to Eighth Anniversary (08-24-2007)
Chandra's launch aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, was obviously a very important event. However, you might say it wasn't until about a month later that the Chandra mission really got started. In late August, after weeks of getting the spacecraft into the correct orbit and testing out various aspects of the satellite, Chandra was ready for its debut to the public. This was Chandra's First Light. Chandra's director, Dr. Harvey Tananbaum, explains the significance of that early image.

How It All Started (07-26-2007)
Just after midnight on July 23, 1999, the Space Shuttle Columbia launched in orbit with the heaviest payload ever carried by a shuttle. Its precious cargo was the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has helped revolutionize our understanding of the Universe.

Mergers And Acquisitions In The Cosmos (06-28-2007)
News about mergers is usually found in the business section. But many objects in the Universe, from black holes to clusters of galaxies, are also prone to mergers. Like the corporate world, cosmic mergers are dictated by where the most assets lie.

The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall (05-24-2007)
When you look at the night sky, stars look like permanent fixtures of light. However, stars are born, live for a period of time, and then ultimately die. How they die is directly linked to how massive they were when they were born.