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Description
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO) is a high-resolution (< 0.5 arcsecond) X-ray telescope with a suite of advanced imaging and spectroscopic instruments. The Observatory was successfully launched by NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999. Chandra was designed to provide order-of-magnitude advances over previous X-ray astronomy missions with regards to spatial and spectral resolution. The High Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA) produces images with a half-power diameter (HPD) of the point spread function (PSF) of < 0.5 arcsec. Chandra has two focal plane science instruments, i) The Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), and ii) The High Resolution Camera (HRC). ACIS is comprised of two CCD arrays, a 4-chip array, ACIS-I ; and a 6-chip array, ACIS-S . ACIS-I was designed for CCD imaging and spectrometry; ACIS-S can be used both for CCD imaging spectrometry and also for high-resolution spectroscopy in conjunction with the HETG grating. A mix of ACIS-S and ACIS-I chips (up to six) may be used for imaging observations. The HRC is comprised of two microchannel plate (MCP ) imaging detectors: the HRC-I designed for wide-field imaging; and, HRC-S designed to serve as a readout for the LETG . The grating systems consist of the Low Energy Transmission Grating (LETG) and the High Energy Transmission Grating (HETG). The HETG , when operated with the HRMA and the ACIS-S , forms the High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS ) for high resolution spectroscopy . The HETGS achieves resolving power up to 1000 in the band between 0.4 keV and 10.0 keV. The LETG when operated with the HRC-S , forms the Low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (LETGS ). The LETGS provides the highest spectral resolution on Chandra at low (0.08 - 0.2 keV) energies. This catalogue is a copy of the Chandra Observation Catalog from the Chandra Data Archive (CDA) which is part of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Science Center (CXC) which is operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
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