Editing X-ray astronomy (section)

==Sounding rocket flights==
{{main|Sounding rocket}}
The first sounding rocket flights for X-ray research were accomplished at the [[White Sands Missile Range]] in [[New Mexico]] with a [[V-2 rocket]] on January 28, 1949. A detector was placed in the [[nose cone]] section and the rocket was launched in a suborbital flight to an altitude just above the atmosphere. X-rays from the Sun were detected by the U.S. [[Naval Research Laboratory]] Blossom experiment on board.<ref name="rockooni">{{cite web |title=Chronology – Quarter 1 1949 |url=http://www.astronautix.com/chrono/19491.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408082333/http://www.astronautix.com/chrono/19491.htm |archive-date=April 8, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> 

An [[Aerobee]] 150 rocket launched on June 19, 1962 (UTC) detected the first X-rays emitted from a source outside the [[Solar System]]<ref name=Giacconi>{{cite magazine|url=https://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.9.439|magazine=Physical Review Letters|volume=9|number=11|title=EVIDENCE FOR X RAYS FROM SOURCES OUTSIDE THE SOLAR SYSTEM|author1=Riccardo Giacconi|author2=Herbert Gursky|author3=Frank R. Paolini|author4=Bruno B. Rossi|date=1 December 1962|pages=439–443 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.9.439 |access-date=7 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="SP91">{{cite book |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19660025496/downloads/19660025496.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005170737/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19660025496/downloads/19660025496.pdf |archive-date=2021-10-05 |url-status=live|date=1966 |title=Significant Achievements in Space Astronomy 1958–1964|publisher=NASA|oclc= 	988751617}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> (Scorpius X-1).<ref name=Giacconi2>{{Cite journal|author=Giacconi R |title=Nobel Lecture: The dawn of x-ray astronomy |journal=Rev Mod Phys|date=2003 |volume=75|issue=3|page=995|doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.75.995 |bibcode=2003RvMP...75..995G|doi-access=free}}</ref> It is now known that such X-ray sources as Sco X-1 are [[compact star]]s, such as [[neutron star]]s or [[black hole]]s. Material falling into a black hole may emit X-rays, but the black hole itself does not. The energy source for the X-ray emission is [[gravity]]. Infalling gas and dust is heated by the strong [[gravitational fields]] of these and other celestial objects.<ref name=britannica>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scorpius-X-1|title=Scorpius X-1|access-date=January 4, 2019}}</ref> Based on discoveries in this new field of X-ray astronomy, starting with Scorpius X-1, [[Riccardo Giacconi]] received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 2002.<ref name=giacconibio>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2002/giacconi/biographical/|title=Riccardo Giacconi|access-date=January 4, 2019}}</ref>

The largest drawback to rocket flights is their very short duration (just a few minutes above the atmosphere before the rocket falls back to Earth) and their limited [[field of view]]. A rocket launched from the United States will not be able to see sources in the southern sky; a rocket launched from Australia will not be able to see sources in the northern sky.

===X-ray Quantum Calorimeter (XQC) project===
[[File:Nike-Black Brant VC XQC launch.gif|thumb|right|A launch of the Black Brant 8 Microcalorimeter (XQC-2) at the turn of the century is a part of the joint undertaking by the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] and [[NASA]]'s [[Goddard Space Flight Center]] known as the X-ray Quantum Calorimeter (XQC) project.]]
In astronomy, the [[interstellar medium]] (or '''ISM''') is the gas and [[cosmic dust]] that pervade interstellar space: the [[matter]] that exists between the [[star system]]s within a galaxy. It fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding [[intergalactic medium]]. The interstellar medium consists of an extremely dilute (by terrestrial standards) mixture of [[ion]]s, [[atom]]s, [[molecule]]s, larger dust grains, [[cosmic ray]]s, and (galactic) magnetic fields.<ref name=Spitzer>{{Cite book|author=Spitzer L |date=1978 |title=Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-471-29335-4 }}</ref> The energy that occupies the same volume, in the form of [[electromagnetic radiation]], is the '''interstellar radiation field'''.

Of interest is the hot ionized medium (HIM) consisting of a [[coronal cloud]] ejection from star surfaces at 10<sup>6</sup>-10<sup>7</sup> K which emits X-rays. The ISM is [[turbulence|turbulent]] and full of structure on all spatial scales. [[Star formation|Stars are born]] deep inside large complexes of [[molecular clouds]], typically a few [[parsec]]s in size. During their lives and deaths, [[star]]s interact physically with the ISM. [[Stellar wind]]s from young clusters of stars (often with giant or supergiant [[HII region]]s surrounding them) and [[shock wave]]s created by [[supernova]]e inject enormous amounts of energy into their surroundings, which leads to hypersonic turbulence. The resultant structures are [[stellar wind bubble]]s and [[superbubble]]s of hot gas. The Sun is currently traveling through the [[Local Interstellar Cloud]], a denser region in the low-density [[Local Bubble]].

To measure the spectrum of the diffuse X-ray emission from the interstellar medium over the energy range 0.07 to 1 keV, [[NASA]] launched a [[Black Brant (rocket)|Black Brant 9]] from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico on May 1, 2008.<ref name=McCammon>{{cite web|author=Wright B |title=36.223 UH MCCAMMON/UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN |url=http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/news/story83.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511111524/http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/news/story83.html |archive-date=May 11, 2008}}</ref> The Principal Investigator for the mission is Dr. Dan McCammon of the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]].