ROSAT

ROSAT (short for Röntgensatellit) was a German X-ray satellite telescope. It was named in honour of Wilhelm Röntgen. It was launched on June 1 1990 with a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, and operated until February 12 1999.

See also: X-ray astronomy

Highlights

 * X-ray all-sky survey catalog, more than 150000 objects
 * XUV all-sky survey catalog (479 objects)
 * Source catalogs from the pointed phase (PSPC and HRI) containing ~ 100000 serendipitous sources
 * Detailed morphology of supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies.
 * Detection of shadowing of diffuse X-ray emission by molecular clouds.
 * Detection of pulsations from Geminga.
 * Detection of isolated neutron stars.
 * Discovery of X-ray emission from comets.
 * Observation of X-ray emission from the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter.

Trivia

 * ROSAT was originally planned to be launched on the Space shuttle but the Challenger disaster caused it to be moved to the Delta platform.
 * Originally designed for a 5 year mission, ROSAT continued in its extended mission for a further 4 years before equipment failure forced end of mission to be declared.

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