RXTE
GOF
High Energy Groovie Movie RXTE
FAQ

High Energy Groove Video Description

words by Alan Smale, Padi Boyd
music by Padi Boyd, Jim Heagy

Audio track (lyrics)Video description
X Rays, Gamma Rays, high energy
Hot stars, heavy stars, high density
Quasars, black holes, supernovae
Powerhouses lighting up the Galaxy
Flashing, bursting, pulsing objects we could see
If we had X-ray eyes, if we had X-ray eyes


The words "X Rays", "Gamma Rays" and "High Energy" flash across the screen. A series of images and video clips follow: A video of a yellow star losing mass to a spiraling disk around black hole fades into an x-ray image of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, which then fades into another video of a rotating neutron star, with its magnetic field lines indicated. This fades into a visible light image of the Milky Way Galaxy (map projection), which fades into the RXTE All-Sky Monitor's "weather map" (the same map projection) which has x-ray sources such as stars, supernovae and pulsars all represented as small disks that change in size and color, based on their brightness and spectral energy. There is much flashing and pulsing in these colored dots. This fades into an x-ray image of an elliptical galaxy.
Going up the spectrum, repeat after me
Radio, infrared, visible, UV
Keep going all the way what do you see?
That's X-rays, gamma rays, high energy
An X-ray photon has a high frequency
Which means a shorter wavelength than you could ever see

A ROY G. BIV rainbow of colors scrolls across the screen, giving way to successive images of the Crab Nebula in the light from radio waves, infrared light, visible (optical) light, ultraviolet light, and finally x-ray light. This is followed by an artist's conception indicating where x-ray light fits into the overall electromagnetic spectrum.
X-rays come from various processes
Like a cloud of gas above about a million degrees
Or magnetic fields that send electrons swarming like bees
Or even neutron stars emitting like black bodies
And you get X-rays from star stuff that came near to and fell
Into a black hole's gravitational potential well

A video animation of the "cannibal" x-ray binary, an orange star rotating around a compact object like a black hole, and radiation from the black hole is "evaporating" the companion star. X-ray images of a group of galaxies (showing the hot gas surrounding the group), and a flare from a star near the center of our galaxy. This is followed by a graph plotting energy output verses "wave number" that shows the smooth curve of "blackbody radiation". Another video animation of a massive black hole with a large disk around it, and jets coming out perpendicular to the disk. We "fly" into the central black hole at the end of this clip. Fade to black.
If we flew above the atmosphere and looked out at the skies
And if we could do it with X-ray eyes
We'd see more flashing and popping than you realize
Objects winking on and off like fireflies
The X-ray sky isn't calm and quiet
It's more like a rockin' high energy riot

Launch video of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. It was launched on a cloudy day on an expendable rocket. A photo of the Chandra x-ray telescope's "x-ray eyes" - two identical x-ray telescopes side-by-side over a third larger telescope. More video of the RXTE All-Sky "weather map" with its flashing and popping disks in different colors and sizes. We zoom into the center of the video clip to fade into a video of the same part of the sky but made from real RXTE data, still showing similar changes in brightness of these x-ray sources.
X Rays, Gamma Rays, high energy
Hot stars, heavy stars, high density
Quasars, black holes, supernovae
Powerhouses lighting up the Galaxy
Flashing, bursting, pulsing objects we could see
If we had X-ray eyes, if we had X-ray eyes


The words "X Rays", "Gamma Rays" and "High Energy" flash across the screen. These give way to still x-ray images of stars, quasars, supernovae, and a pan across the Milky Way's Galactic Center in X-ray light. Cut to technicians and engineers building the very large Chandra X-ray Observatory in a clean room, which fades into another clean-room shot of latex-gloved hands connecting small wires to the Suzaku X-Ray Spectrometer instrument.
X-rays can show you the roots of your teeth
Shine them through your body see the bones underneath
But don't go thinking that we X-ray the stars
'Cause they're billions of miles away, much too far!
We collect all the X-rays that they send to Earth
Telling tales of star death, giving hints of star birth

X-ray images of teeth and bones. Animation of RXTE's release from its rocket and initial expansion of solar panels. This fades to an animation of x-rays entering the Chandra telescope and landing on the detector at the other end of the observatory.
Here's a story of a pair of stars called Cygnus X-1
One's a black hole many times the mass of the Sun
With a disk of gas surrounding it, spiralling in
Sucked from the companion star's outermost skin
We see the high-speed flickering as star stuff flies in
A one way trip beyond the event horizon

Animation of Cygnus X-1, depicted as a blue star orbiting around a black hole and losing some of its mass to the black hole. Our viewpoint begins from quite far away as we watch the system rotate, eventually zooming in on the accretion disk around the black hole, where we see material spiralling and falling in toward the event horizon.
A cosmic lighthouse flashes in space
It's an X-ray pulsar with a regular pace
A neutron star 30 miles around at best
Spinning 'round its axis once a second or less
Then way beyond the Milky Way the active galaxies
Are the furthest biggest things our X-ray eyes can see

Animation of a neutron star flashing every few seconds. Then, an active galaxy, first in optical light, then fading to x-ray light, showing the similarities and differences of viewing the same object at different wavelengths.
Point your X-ray specs toward the Sun's location
You'll notice that along with its slow rotation
You'll see active loops and plasma arcs
In a solar dance producing X-ray sparks
The X-ray Sun isn't serene and smooth
It's a dynamic and changing High Energy Groove

A short animation of the x-ray sun (from still images of x-ray data) show large loops and light and dark areas, and the rotation of the sun in general. We zoom into one area and the image changes to a video of a flare in progress, showing first a bright flash, then followed by an "arcade" of plasma along magnetic field lines where the flare occured. This is followed by an optical view of the sun with a single large sunspot, flipping over to an x-ray video of the sun rotating and with large patches of evolving light and dark areas, and flares. Back to the RXTE All-Sky "weather map" with its disks of color changing size and color.
X Rays, Gamma Rays, high energy
Hot stars, heavy stars, high density
Quasars, black holes, supernovae
Powerhouses lighting up the Galaxy
Flashing, bursting, pulsing objects we could see
If we had X-ray eyes, if we had X-ray eyes


The words "X Rays", "Gamma Rays" and "High Energy" flash across the screen. Animation of still images of x-ray data of gamma-ray burst show expanding rings of dust excited by the radiation from the burst. A still image of the Centaurus A spiral galaxy, in radio, optical, and x-ray light together. An artist's animation of the Sagittarius A region at the center of our galaxy, which is depicted as a swirling disk of gas around a super-massive black hole that periodically puffs up and produces "bursts" of high energy particles. Fade to black. Credits.