Banking X-ray Data for the Future

Narrator (April Hobart, CXC): Archives, in their many forms, save information from today that people will want to access and study in the future. This is a critical function of all archives, but it is especially important when it comes to storing data from today's modern telescopes.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has collected data for over sixteen years on thousands of different objects throughout the Universe. The science team has immediate access to the data, and then a year after observation all of the data goes into a public archive where it can be folded into later studies.

To celebrate October being American Archive Month a collection of images from the Chandra archive is being released. Some of these objects may be familiar to readers, while others may be unknown. None of these images, in the exact form, has been released before.

By combining data from different observation dates, new perspectives of cosmic objects can be created. With archives like those from Chandra and other major observatories, such vistas will be available for future exploration.