Which type of telescope detects x-rays?

Answer 1

First you must appreciate that x-rays are a form of light (electromagnetic radiation), they are given off by very hot bodies or highly energetic events.

Our sun and other stars emit x-rays as do other astronomical objects and in just the same way that we use optical telescopes to focus light from the stars to make images, to understand these x-ray sources we need to focus their x-ray light too.

The trouble is that x-rays tend to pass through mirrors and glass lenses rather than being reflected or bent by them. Thus to focus x-rays you need to make a special sort of lens.

To do this one uses the property that it is possible to deflect an x-ray off a surface at a very shallow angle (rather like the refection of the far shore on the surface of a smooth lake)

Thus x-ray lenses are made of concentric metal tubes nested one inside the other and these bring the incoming x-rays to a focus behind the lens where it can be imaged by a chip sensitive to x-rays. It is also possible to make imaging x-ray detectors by mimicking the structure of lobster eyes.

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Once we have a picture of the structure of the objects emitting x-rays, we can begin to try and understand how the high energy objects fit into our model of the universe.

Answer 2

The primary space-based X-ray telescope is the Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched in 1999. The Japanese space agency's Suzaku X-ray Observatory (Japan's fifth x-ray observatory) and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory are also actively observing the universe in the X-ray bands.

Answer 3

A telescope that detects x-rays is simply called an x-ray telescope.

Answer 4

gamma-ray