It’s NICER in the witching hour

 

  It’s NICER in the witching hour:

This image of the whole sky shows 22 months of X-ray data recorded by NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload aboard the International Space Station (@ISS) during its nighttime slews between targets. ⁣

NICER’s primary goals require that it target and track cosmic sources as the space station orbits the Earth every 93 minutes. But when the Sun sets and night falls on the orbital outpost, the NICER team keeps its detectors active while the instrument goes from one target to another, which can occur eight times each orbit. ⁣

Each arc traces X-rays, as well as occasional strikes from energetic particles, captured during these night moves. The brightness of each point in the image is a result of these contributions as well as the time NICER has spent looking in that direction. A diffuse glow permeates the X-ray sky even far from bright sources.⁣

Image description: On a black background are a network of orange filaments connecting a number of bright spots. The bright spots indicate places where the filaments cross, and are sources in the sky where NICER often points its telescope. The swirling loops between those points reveal the path NICER’s telescope takes between these sources. The image is watermarked “Credit: NASA/NICER.”⁣

⁣

Credits: NASA/NICER⁣

[ NASA Share this information : ]

25 October 2023