Riccardo Giacconi was an Italian-American Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist who laid down the foundations of X-ray astronomy. He was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University.
National Medal of Science award ceremony, 2003
X-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of X-ray observation and detection from astronomical objects. X-radiation is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect X-rays must be taken to high altitude by balloons, sounding rockets, and satellites. X-ray astronomy uses a type of space telescope that can see x-ray radiation which standard optical telescopes, such as the Mauna Kea Observatories, cannot.
X-rays start at ~0.008 nm and extend across the electromagnetic spectrum to ~8 nm, over which the Earth's atmosphere is opaque.
NRL scientists J. D. Purcell, C. Y. Johnson, and Dr. F. S. Johnson are among those recovering instruments from a V-2 used for upper atmospheric research above the New Mexico desert. This is V-2 number 54, launched January 18, 1951, (photo by Dr. Richard Tousey, NRL).
Navy Deacon rockoon photographed just after a shipboard launch in July 1956.
One of the mirrors of XRISM made of 203 foils
