Congress is about to make a huge mistake for astronomy #SaveChandra

less than 1m read

·Nov 10, 2024

Congress is about to make a huge mistake in space. In the 1990s, NASA launched four telescopes called the Great Observatories. Their purpose was to study the universe across the electromagnetic spectrum. As the telescopes aged, NASA built replacements for each of them, except Chandra.

Chandra is the world's most powerful telescope for detecting x-rays, which reveal the biggest events in the universe. In 2017, Chandra found x-rays coinciding with the first observed gravitational waves. Last year, it recorded the most distant black hole ever.

But NASA just released their 2025 budget, and Chandra's funding has been cut 40%. If Congress approves this budget, layoffs could start this summer, with the telescope shutting down shortly after that. Without a replacement, losing Chandra would be what scientists are calling an extinction-level event for x-ray astronomy.

The telescope doesn't need much; its annual budget is far less than that of Hubble or Webb—only about the cost of a single F-16 fighter jet. Ask Congress to save Chandra, spread the hashtag, and go to savechandra.harvard.edu.

Top 5 Stocks the Smart Money is Buying for 2022

Watchers of the Land | Short Film Showcase | National Geographic

View All

Percent word problem examples

In a video game, Val scored 30 percent fewer points than Peta. Peta scored 1060 points. How many points did Val score? Pause this video and see if you can figure out how many points Val scored. All right, well now let’s do this together, and there’s a co…

Inside the Struggle to Save an Endangered Grouper Species | National Geographic

This female Nassau grouper caught off the coast of Biz is taking her last few breaths. The survival of this endangered species, an apex predator, is critical to the survival of the coral reef. The Bellian Barrier Reef, the second longest in the world, is …

Regulate | Vocabulary | Khan Academy

All right wordsmiths, what’s up? The word of the day today is “regulate.” It means to make rules that control something. I’ll throw in a 10-second music break. Tell me if you can identify any other common English words that start with “Reg.” Alright, her…

When Big Oil Owns Your Soil | Parched

California is the third largest oil-producing state in the country. A lot of people don’t realize that. When they think of California, they think of vineyards and Hollywood. But we’ve been living with oil and gas production since the late 19th century. Ke…

Examples recognizing transformations

What we’re going to do in this video is get some practice identifying some transformations. The transformations we’re going to look at are things like rotations, where you are spinning something around a point. We’re going to look at translations, where y…

10 Brutal Truths That Trigger People's Ego

You know, the universe seems kind of small compared to some people’s egos. We all know the type. The challenge is speaking to them in a manner that doesn’t trigger any childish behaviors. So, if you want to avoid that at any cost, you’d better pay attenti…

Congress is about to make a huge mistake for astronomy #SaveChandra

More Articles