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Telescopes and Instruments
1.2 Meter (48-inch) Telescope The 1.2-Meter (48 Inch) Telescope is a general purpose visible-light telescope located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO), a major observational facility of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian located in southern Arizona. Astronomers use this telescope to observe objects in the Solar System and the Milky Way, as well as other galaxies, including the supermassive black holes known as quasars. Astronomers also use the 1.2-Meter Telescope to observe star systems that might contain exoplanets, which is a major program for the observatory. 1
1.5-meter Tillinghast (60-inch) Telescope The 1.5-Meter (60 Inch) Tillinghast Telescope is a general purpose visible-light telescope located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona, operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Astronomers use this telescope to measure the spectrum of light emitted by a wide variety of objects in the Solar System, the Milky Way, and in distant galaxies. 2
Arcus The most powerful astronomical events are often very bright in X-rays, including supermassive black holes, the hot atmospheres of stars, and the extremely hot plasmas in and around galaxy clusters. Arcus is a proposed NASA space telescope designed to study the X-ray spectrum of a wide range of astronomical phenomena to a level of sensitivity higher than any previous X-ray observatory. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian scientists are the leaders of the collaboration proposing Arcus. The mission proposal will be due in late 2023 and, if ultimately accepted, Arcus would launch in 2031. 3
Chandra The Chandra X-ray Observatory is NASA’s flagship X-ray observatory, providing essential data on everything from the environment surrounding newborn stars to the emissions from hot plasma inside galaxy clusters. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), as part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, manages Chandra’s day-to-day operations, providing spacecraft control, observation planning, and data processing for astronomers. Chandra is one of NASA’s orbiting Great Observatories, along with the Hubble. 4
Einstein Observatory NASA’s Einstein Observatory was the first X-ray space telescope designed to produce images of astronomical X-ray sources. The spacecraft operated from 1978 through 1981, providing important observations of pulsars, supernova remnants, supermassive black holes in other galaxies, and many more, paving the way for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The X-ray telescope was designed by researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. 5
Large Aperture Experiment to Explore the Dark Ages (LEDA) At some point early in the history of the universe, the first stars were born. However, we don’t know exactly when that was, or what the first generation of stars looked like. The Large Aperture Experiment to Explore the Dark Ages (LEDA) is an observatory designed to solve these mysteries, by looking for light from hydrogen gas when the universe was only about 1% of its current age, to find signs of the earliest stars and black holes. LEDA consists of 512 antennas tuned to the wavelength of radio light emitted by cold hydrogen atoms. These antennas are in two clusters located in California and New Mexico. 6
Uhuru The Uhuru X-ray Explorer Satellite was the first spacecraft dedicated to X-ray astronomy. During its mission in the early 1970s, Uhuru mapped the X-ray sky. It provided the first observational evidence for black holes, revealed that galaxy clusters contain hot X-ray-emitting gas, and charted the behavior of neutron stars in binary systems. The observatory was named Uhuru, the Swahili word meaning “freedom”, in honor of Kenyan independence and because the rocket carrying the spacecraft was launched into orbit from a site off the coast of Kenya near Mombasa. The success of the Uhuru satellite led the way for all subsequent space telescopes, from the Einstein Observatory to NASA’s flagship Chandra X-ray Observatory. |