A revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander lifted off Wednesday night.
The Japanese Space Agency launch, which was rescheduled several times due to bad weather, occurred aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center at 8.42am Japan Standard Time on Thursday.
The event streamed live on JAXA’s YouTube channel, offering a broadcast in both English and Japanese.
The XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”), also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA, along with participation from the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
Along for the ride is JAXA’s SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon.
This small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location within 100 meters, rather than the typical kilometer range, by relying on high-precision landing technology.
The mission is designed to operate for three years.
The satellite can detect X-rays that have energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts, which is far beyond the energy of visible light at 2 to 3 electron volts, according to NASA.
This range of detection will allow for studying cosmic extremes across the universe.
The satellite carries two instruments called Resolve and Xtend.
Resolve tracks tiny temperature shifts that help it determine the source, composition, motion and physical state of X-rays.
Resolve operates at minus 273.10 degrees Celsius, a temperature about 50 times colder than that of deep space, thanks to a refrigerator-size container of liquid helium.
This instrument will help astronomers unlock cosmic mysteries such as the chemical details of glowing hot gas inside galactic clusters.
(9 NEWS)
