A new kind of satellite that will show us celestial objects in a different way was launched on Wednesday night, along with a spacecraft called the “Moon Sniper” that will land on the moon.
The Japanese Space Agency had to change the launch many times because of bad weather. Finally, they launched a rocket called H-IIA from the Tanegashima Space Center at 7:42 p. mOn Wednesday at 8:42 a. mIt is currently Thursday in Japan, according to the local time.
The event was shown live on JAXA’s YouTube channel, with broadcasts in English and Japanese.
The XRISM satellite, or X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a project involving JAXA and NASA, as well as the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
JAXA’s SLIM, which stands for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, is also coming along for the journey. This small exploration lander is made to show how it can land very accurately in a specific spot within 100 meters (328 feet), rather than within a kilometer. It uses advanced landing technology to achieve this. The accuracy of the mission made it be called Moon Sniper.
According to NASA, the satellite and its two instruments will study the hottest parts of the universe, the largest structures, and objects with very strong gravity. XRISM is a machine that can sense X-ray light, which is a type of light that humans cannot see because its wavelength is too short.
Learning about stars that explode and mysterious black holes.
Richard Kelley, who is in charge of XRISM at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said that they aim to research the results of star explosions and the fast particle streams from massive black holes in galaxies. “But, of course, we are most thrilled about all the surprising things XRISM will find as it watches our universe. ”
With this in mind, XRISM has many curved mirrors that are arranged in a way that helps them detect X-rays more effectively. The satellite will need to adjust and test itself for a couple of months after it gets to space. The goal is to work for three years.
The satellite can see X-rays that are much more powerful than visible light, according to NASA. Visible light has energy levels of only 2 to 3 electron volts, while the X-rays detected by the satellite have energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. This detection range will let us study very extreme things in space.
The satellite has two tools called Resolve and Xtend. Resolve is a system that can detect very small changes in temperature. It uses these changes to figure out where X-rays come from, what they are made of, how they move, and what form they are in. Resolve is really, really cold – about 50 times colder than deep space. It gets this cold by using a big container of liquid helium. At that temperature, it is minus 459. 58 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 273. 10 degrees Celsius
This tool will help scientists who study space learn more about the chemicals in hot gas found in groups of stars called galactic clusters.
“According to Kelley, XRISM’s Resolve tool will allow us to look closely at the composition of cosmic X-ray sources in a way that we have never done before. ” We expect to learn a lot about the hottest things in the universe like stars that explode, black holes, galaxies that are powered by them, and groups of galaxies.
In simpler terms, Xtend will allow XRISM to see a very wide area in space using X-rays, which is one of the biggest on any X-ray satellite.
Brian Williams, who is in charge of NASA’s XRISM project, said that the information collected by XRISM will be the most detailed ever seen for certain events that we will be studying. The mission will help us understand more about things that are hard to study, like what’s inside neutron stars and how fast particles move near black holes in active galaxies.
At the same time, SLIM will use its own method of moving forward to go towards the moon. The spaceship will reach the moon’s orbit around three to four months after it takes off. It will stay in orbit around the moon for about one month, and then it will start to slowly come down and try to land softly on the moon’s surface, which will happen around four to six months after it took off. If the lander works well, it will also briefly study the surface of the moon to demonstrate the technology.
SLIM is a mission that will land on the moon near a small crater called Shioli. It will explore the rocks there to learn more about how the moon was formed. The place where Apollo 11 landed is located in the south of the Sea of Tranquility, near the moon’s middle part, in the year 1969.
India successfully landed on the moon on August 23, joining the United States, former Soviet Union, and China as the fourth country to do so. The landing was part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and took place near the southern part of the moon. Before, the lunar lander made by the Japanese company Ispace called Hakuto-R fell down 3 miles (4. 8 kilometers) and crashed into the moon when trying to land in April.
The SLIM probe uses technology that helps it navigate using its vision or eyes.
Areas that have a lot of resources, like the south pole of the moon which has water ice in the shadowed parts, can also be dangerous because there are many craters and rocks. In order to avoid these things, future missions will have to be able to land in a small space.
SLIM is designed to be very light, which can be helpful for agencies to go on missions more often and explore moons on other planets like Mars. If SLIM is successful, JAXA says it will change missions from landing in random places to landing in specific locations of our choosing.