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The study of celestial bodies using their X-ray emission. X-ray astronomy deals mainly
with Galactic and extragalactic phenomena involving very high-energy photon emissions,
covering a band of energies between 0.1 keV and 500 keV. The research field includes:
X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, pulsars, black holes, dark matter, active galaxies,
galactic clusters X-ray transients. The Earth's atmosphere absorbs most X-rays coming
from outer space. X-ray astronomy therefore requires observations to be done above
atmosphere. The first rocket flight which successfully detected a cosmic source of
X-ray emission was launched in 1962 by an American research group. A very bright source
was detected that they named Scorpius X-1. Since then several dedicated X-ray astronomy
satellites have been launched, among which: Uhuru, INTEGRAL, ROSAT, Rossi X-ray Timing
Explorer (RXTE), Chandra X-ray Observatory, and XMM-Newton, which have contributed
to important advances in astronomy.
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