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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Hitomi Launches

NASA ^ | February 18, 2016 | (see photo credit)

Posted on by SunkenCiv

Explanation: On February 17 at 5:45pm JST this H-IIA rocket blasted skyward from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center located off the southern coast of Japan, planet Earth. Onboard was the ASTRO-H X-ray astronomy satellite, now in orbit. Designed to explore the extreme cosmos from black holes to massive galaxy clusters, the satellite observatory is equipped with four cutting-edge X-ray telescopes and instruments sensitive to photon energies from 300 to 600,000 electron volts. By comparison, visible light photon energies are 2 to 3 electron volts. Following a tradition of renaming satellites after their successful launch, ASTRO-H has been newly dubbed "Hitomi", inspired by an ancient legend of dragons. Hitomi means "the pupil of the eye".





(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...

TOPICS:

Astronomy

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Science

KEYWORDS:

apod

astronomy

hitomi

japan

jaxa

science

[Credit and Copyright: F. Scott Porter (NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center)]



To: SunkenCiv

Nicely done Japan.



To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; disndat; KoRn; Grammy; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; dayglored; ...

by 3 posted onby SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)

To: The KG9 Kid

Well said.



by 4 posted onby Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)

To: The KG9 Kid

While Japan gets on with business, NASA continues its outreach to jihadist murderers and rapists.



To: SunkenCiv

‘Hey Kim, watch this.’



To: SunkenCiv

A country that can launch a satellite into space orbit, like Japan with its H-IIB rocket system, can deliver a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead anywhere in the world. There is no doubt that Japan secretly has nuclear weapons, just like Israel. I’m sure part of the launch of the satellite was to showcase Japan’s technological capabilities. Kudos to Japan.



To: DrPretorius

Ah. I see you’ve read Debt of Honor...



by 8 posted onby null and void (This is "They live", and most people would rather fight you than put on the glasses...)

To: DrPretorius

Yep, on the shelf, some assembly required. “why no, we do not have nuclear weapons”. Not assembled, at least.



To: DrPretorius; null and void; doorgunner69

The postwar Japanese have concentrated on improving their engineering depth and manufacturing quality; as a consequence, they have an advantage over the Chinese in the latter, and probably will retain it even after the Chinese overtake them in engineering (probably inevitable, due to the sheer number of Chinese).



by 10 posted onby SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)

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