Launched on July 23, 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory is known as one of NASA's current 'Great Observatories,' mentioned in the same breath as the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope. Today, scientists are celebrating the observatory's 15 years of success.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world's most powerful X-ray telescope designed to detect x-ray emission from hot and energetic regions of the universe, yielding a number of discoveries including black holes, exploded stars, and remnants of supernovas. In honor of the observatory's launch, NASA released four newly processed images of supernova remnants that Chandra previously observed: the Crab Nebula, Tycho, G292.0+1.8, and 3C58.

The Observatory has three major parts: (1) the X-ray telescope, whose mirrors focus X-rays from celestial objects; (2) the science instruments which record the X-rays so that X-ray images can be produced and analyzed; and (3) the spacecraft, which provides the environment necessary for the telescope and the instruments to work, according to Chandra's mission overview.

Chandra is also known for drastically improving the study of dark matter in its tracing of the separation of dark matter from normal matter in collisions between galaxy clusters, despite it being known best for its observation of quasars (distant objects powered by black holes that are a billion times as massive as the sun) as well as planets and comets. The light from some of the quasars Chandra has observed have been traveling through space for ten billion years.

"Chandra changed the way we do astronomy. It showed that precision observation of the X-rays from cosmic sources is critical to understanding what is going on," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director in Washington, in this NASA news release. "We're fortunate we've had 15 years - so far - to use Chandra to advance our understanding of stars, galaxies, black holes, dark energy, and the origin of the elements necessary for life."

Each orbit of Chandra, which is above Earth's X-ray absorbing atmosphere and about 1/3 of the way to the moon, takes about 64 hours and 18 minutes. It is the largest satellite (45 feet long) ever launched by NASA's space shuttle and it was the first such mission to be commanded by a woman (STS-93). Its observatory program is managed by NASA's Marshall Center for the Science Mission Directorate in Washington D.C. and it will continue to operate until it becomes too expensive to maintain (as we've seen with some NASA missions) or its discovery output begins to see significant decreases. Its mission was originally scheduled to only last five years.

You can read more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory on its NASA webpage.

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