An image of the Chandra X-Ray Telescope. Credit: NASA
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Hamptons Observatory (HO), a 501(c)(3) NYS nonprofit that relies on public support has served the South Fork since 2005. Hamptons Observatory offers all of its programs free-of-charge so that everyone can enjoy the wonders of their Universe. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help support our work. Thanks!
In-Person Astronomy Lecture:
“The Chandra X-Ray Telescope: An Insider’s Perspective” (A Free, In-Person Lecture)
SPEAKER: Dr. Jonathan Schachter
CO-HOST: Rogers Memorial Library
Registration is required: https://bit.ly/ChandraTalk
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999, was named after the esteemed Nobel laureate and pioneer white dwarf theoretical physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar of U Chicago. It had only a five-year expected lifetime, but Chandra is now in its 25th year and is still making momentous discoveries. This telescope was specially designed to take X-ray images and spectra from collapsed compact objects with strong gravity (e.g., neutron stars, and black holes, including at galaxy centers). It can also observe extremes of temperature and pressure in planets, stars, supernova remnants, galaxies, and galaxy clusters. Chandra has traced the separation of dark matter from light matter in the collision of galaxies and has contributed to studies of both dark matter and dark energy. As its mission continues, Chandra will carry on the discovery of startling new science about our high-energy Universe.
The TRW Inc. engineering firm worked alongside Harvard, MIT, and Penn State scientists to design and build Chandra. Key testing of the X-ray optics was performed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Harvard and MIT then deployed the satellite and served as mission control. Dr. Jonathan Schachter, the only Harvard astronomer on the TRW software test team, joined the project in 1996; although he left the team in 2000, he has continued to follow Chandra as it takes observations in its elliptical orbit around the earth. Dr. Schachter will discuss the development and history of Chandra, as well as touch on the history of X-ray astrophysics and its key personalities. He will also present some of Chandra’s pivotal discoveries, many of which have resulted from collaborations with Hubble and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope.
Dr. Jonathan Schachter received his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, applying atomic physics techniques to observations of black holes, quasars, neutron stars, and white dwarfs. He did his postdoc at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CIA) High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD), which founded the field of X-ray astronomy in the 1960s under future Nobel laureate Ricardo Giacconi. From 1990-1995, Dr. Schachter worked on X-ray properties of Milky Way compact objects and stellar coronae, and extragalactic BL Lacs and quasars, using archival (1980s) Einstein Satellite X-ray data. He attended Chandra’s midnight launch from The Cape on Space Shuttle Columbia in July, 1999. Dr. Schachter left the program for Wall Street, but has maintained contact with his CIA colleagues through a HEAD social group, the “Movable Feast,” which he co-founded decades ago. He is currently CEO of the consulting firm Delta Vega, which uses techniques of physics, math and statistics to model stochastic processes for traders and risk managers. He resides in both Brooklyn and Southampton.
Hamptons Observatory extends its deepest thanks to Dr. Schachter for generously taking the time to share his expertise and to co-host Rogers Memorial Library for their kind collaboration.
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