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  • Review
  • Published:

X-ray astronomy comes of age

Nature volume 606, pages 261–271 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Chandra X-ray Observatory (Chandra) and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) continue to expand the frontiers of knowledge about high-energy processes in the Universe. These groundbreaking observatories lead an X-ray astronomy revolution: revealing the physical processes and extreme conditions involved in producing cosmic X-rays in objects ranging in size from a few kilometres (comets) to millions of light years (clusters of galaxies), and particle densities ranging over 20 orders of magnitude. In probing matter under conditions far outside those accessible from Earth, they have a central role in the quest to understand our place in the Universe and the fundamental laws that govern our existence. Chandra and XMM-Newton are also part of a larger picture wherein advances in subarcsecond imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy across a wide range of wavelengths combine to provide a more complete picture of the phenomena under investigation. As these missions mature, deeper observations and larger samples further expand our knowledge, and new phenomena and collaborations with new facilities forge exciting, often unexpected discoveries. This Review provides the highlights of a wide range of studies, including auroral activity on Jupiter, cosmic-ray acceleration in supernova remnants, colliding neutron stars, missing baryons in low-density hot plasma, and supermassive black holes formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang.

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Fig. 1: Chandra image of the Tycho supernova remnant.
Fig. 2: Unfolded, high-resolution Chandra HETG spectra of V404 Cygni in outburst.
Fig. 3: Chandra image of Circinus X-1.
Fig. 4: The XMM-Newton observation of the X-ray emission from the central 300 pc by 500 pc of the Milky Way.
Fig. 5: The XMM-Newton high-resolution spectrum of the luminous quasar PDS 456.
Fig. 6: XMM-Newton time lag versus energy spectrum.
Fig. 7: Light curves showing nine-hour quasi-periodic eruptions from the low-mass BH GSN 069 during a TDE outburst.
Fig. 8: Composite image of Pictor A.
Fig. 9: Combined Chandra, XMM-Newton and Röntgensatellit (ROSAT) images reveal a cold front in the Perseus cluster.
Fig. 10: Significant absorption features (labelled) associated with the WHIM in the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) spectra of the BL Lac object 1ES 1553+113.

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  • 24 June 2022

    In the version of this article initially published, the original copyright holder shown (Springer Nature) was incorrect and the copyright has been amended to © Smithsonian under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited in the HTML and PDF versions of the article. Further, the text in the third-to-last sentence, reading, in part, “comparable with Chandra, extending to 10’ off-axis”, 10’ was mistakenly edited to read 10” in the original version.

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Acknowledgements

It is an honour, privilege and pleasure to serve on the teams responsible for Chandra and XMM-Newton, and to acknowledge their dedication and excellence over so many years. We acknowledge and thank both NASA and ESA for their continued support for these two missions. We acknowledge the contributions of thousands of individuals, both within the mission projects and around the world, who have worked hard to make these observatories successful. B.J.W. and W.T. acknowledge support from NASA contract NAS8-03060 (Chandra X-ray Center). B.J.W. acknowledges support from the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation while at the University of Bristol, UK, and thanks the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, UK, for their hospitality, and the support of a Sheepshank Visiting Fellowship during part of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Belinda J. Wilkes & Wallace Tucker

  2. School of Physics, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Belinda J. Wilkes

  3. European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain

    Norbert Schartel & Maria Santos-Lleo

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  1. Belinda J. Wilkes
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  4. Maria Santos-Lleo
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Contributions

In keeping with the synergistic nature of the Chandra and XMM-Newton missions, all the sections of the manuscript contained discussions of the scientific discoveries made by both Chandra and XMM-Newton. B.J.W. and W.T. concentrated on results from Chandra, and N.S. and M.S.-L. focused on XMM-Newton.

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Correspondence to Belinda J. Wilkes.

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Wilkes, B.J., Tucker, W., Schartel, N. et al. X-ray astronomy comes of age. Nature 606, 261–271 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04481-y

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