The HEASARC is hiring! - Applications are now being accepted for a scientist with significant experience and interest in the technical aspects of astrophysics research, to work in the HEASARC at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD. Refer to the AAS Job register for full details.
Explorer 1,
the first American satellite, launched January 31, 1958. Explorer 1
discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth.
These radiation belts are a dominant source of background noise in X-ray
detectors.
The ASE-MIT experiment payload launched 1 minute before midnight on
18 June 1962 using a USAF Areobee 150 rocket. This rocket was above
80 km for a total of 5 min and 50 sec, and reached a maximum altitude
of 225 Km. As the spinning rocket climbed above 80 km the doors
opened and discovered the first evidence for cosmic X-ray radiation
from beyond our solar system. This flight discovered Sco X-1, the brightest
X-ray source in the sky and now known to be an X-ray binary system. The
flight also discovered an intense X-ray background, which is now believed
to be the superposition of many fainter extragalactic sources known as
active galactic nuclei (AGN).
