Spacelab 2 X-ray Telescope
- Object Number:
- 2005-33/1
- type:
- telescope - astronomical
Spacelab 2 X-ray telescope (XRT), University of Birmingham, 1985
This telescope was carried into orbit aboard the US Space Shuttle Challenger in 1985. It was positioned in the open payload doors of Challenger and surveyed our galaxy for ten days. It returned the first high-energy X-ray image of the galactic centre. The telescope was devised and assembled by a University of Birmingham team led by Professor Peter Willmore. It used an innovative pseudo-random coded mask technique for imaging the individual X-ray sources across the galaxy.