The Chandra X-ray Observatory, with its Inertial Upper Stage and support equipment, is the largest and heaviest payload ever launched by the Space Shuttle. During each orbit of the Earth, Chandra travels one-third of the way to the Moon. To the human eye, space appears serene and void. It is neither.
Temperatures can reach millions of degrees.
Objects are accelerated by gravity to nearly the speed of light and magnetic fields more than a trillion times stronger than the Earth's cause some stars to crack and tremble. The observatory will not only help to probe these mysteries, but also will serve as a unique tool to study detailed physics in a laboratory that cannot be replicated here on earth - the universe itself. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has every prospect of rewriting textbooks and helping technology advance in the coming decade. The Chandra X-ray Observatory will provide unique and crucial information on the nature of objects ranging from comets in our solar system to quasars at the edge of the observable universe. The largest and most massive objects in the universe are galaxy clusters - enormous collections of galaxies, some like our own.