The next step is to optimize the design of the lenses and associated sensors, mechanics and electronics. "This opens a whole new window to answer basic questions about the universe," he says.Ī first prototype of the telescopic technique has already been designed at KTH and tested in a laboratory. "We will see extremely distant objects in the early universe and can also discover new objects that have never before been observed with X-rays," Danielsson says.
The system's improved ability to collect light will reveal objects too faint to be seen. "We are looking forward to developing the new lightweight optics with Mats since this will allow us to eventually build a large area and lightweight telescope that produces more precise measurements than are possible today." One such telescope, the PoGO+ mission which operated at an altitude of 40 km suspended from an enormous helium filed balloon, enabled Pearce and his colleagues to make new observations of X-rays originating from the vicinity of a pulsar and a black hole-a study he hopes to build on using the new telescope design. X-ray telescopes are deployed aboard spacecraft since X-rays are readily absorbed by Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed on the ground. An assembly of disks with microengineered prisms guides the beam toward the focal point, rather than paraboloid and hyperboloid mirrors. This is important in order to make correct physical interpretations."Ī cross section representation of how the new design differs from Wolter type X-ray telescopes. "Another advantage is that it will have good spatial resolution, which means that you can see more details in the pictures you take. "This allows you to build a telescope that can collect more than a thousand times as much light as today's X-ray space telescopes can handle," Danielsson says. With the KTH telescope's shorter focal length of less than 50cm, Danielsson says the system would provide greater optical power, bending the rays more sharply to the focal point. NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, for example, has a focal length of 10m. Because this light is difficult to focus, the focal length of such a telescope is typically long. The most commonly-used technique for focusing X-rays in space telescopes is through the use of an array of curved mirrors that gradually bend light toward the focal point. Mats Danielsson, a researcher in medical X-ray technology, and astrophysicist Mark Pearce, say the design reduces the focal length and weight of the telescope, allowing large collecting areas with high spatial resolution so that space observations can delve deeper into the universe and examine objects that are now too faint to be detected.
The researchers, from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, report on how they have dispensed with light-reflecting mirrors in favor of a network of microengineered plastic prisms. The telescope, which focuses X-rays with a unique Stacked Prism Lens, was unveiled this week in an article in Nature Astronomy.
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