Q&A: Chandra Mission

Q:
I'm fascinated as to how X-rays, which I use every day at work, are used in my favorite hobby, Astronomy. I'm curious as to what type of detector you use, in comparison to the one in my XRF spectrometer.

A:
I'm not sure what kind of detector you use in your work, but the X-rays detected by Chandra are in the energy range 0.1 to 10 keV. Two types of detectors are used independently (only one at a time): ACIS, an Imaging Spectrometer which uses CCD's with optical/UV filters, and the High Resolution Camera, which uses microchannel plates, and a crossed-wire grid to determine the position of the incoming X-ray.