Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Apr 20;107(16):7202-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0913079107. Epub 2010 Apr 19.
Since its beginning in the early 1960s, the field of X-ray astronomy has exploded, experiencing a ten-billion-fold increase in sensitivity, which brought it on par with the most advanced facilities at all wavelengths. I will briefly describe the revolutionary first discoveries prior to the launch of the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories, present some of the current achievements, and offer some thoughts about the future of this field.
自 20 世纪 60 年代初诞生以来,X 射线天文学领域经历了爆炸式发展,灵敏度提高了 100 亿倍,与所有波长的最先进设施相媲美。我将简要描述钱德拉和 XMM-牛顿 X 射线观测站发射之前的革命性的首批发现,介绍一些当前的成果,并对该领域的未来进行一些思考。