To find and download HEASARC data in the cloud, you can use astroquery.heasarc or download our new tool, hark.
The HEASARC and NuSTAR teams are greatly saddened by the sudden passing of Katja Pottschmidt. Most recently Katja was the lead scientist for the NuSTAR Guest Observer Facility (GOF), a role she had supported for many years. During her science career she worked on many other high energy astrophysics missions and played an integral role in advancing our knowledge of the universe. She was a wonderful colleague and friend and will be keenly missed by all who knew her.
High Energy Astrophysics Observatories
These Web pages describe all the high energy astronomy observatories, or “missions,” ever launched, excluding those solely dedicated to observing the Sun. List of the cosmic microwave background experiments are available from the LAMBDA web site.
The links to the left in the menu-bar are dedicated to the most notable past and present X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy missions. The pages for each mission include:
- a mission overview,
- technical information on the instrumentation,
- a bibliography and
- a gallery of images.
They also contain a description of the available data if they are present in the HEASARC archive. Information on other satellites carrying either an X-ray or a gamma-ray telescope is available on the All Missions pages.
Other Resources
- All Missions (info & images)
- All Missions by Time
- All Missions by Energy
Further Reading
- Why are X-ray and gamma-ray observatories in space?
- A Brief History of High-Energy (X-ray & Gamma-Ray) Astronomy (in the form of a reverse chronology)
- A brief history of X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy.
- Bibliography on X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy.
Books
- "Astronomy from Space" by John K. Davies, 1997, Praxis Publishing Ltd.
- "X-ray Detectors" by George Fraser, Cambridge Astrophysics series.