Definitions for "X-ray astronomy"
the branch of astronomy dealing with the study of astronomical objects which emit X-rays, and the methods used to detect such objects.
A branch of astronomy which deals primarily with X-Rays.
There are certain objects in and beyond the galaxy, such as supernova remnants and certain sorts of binary systems, which emit electromagnetic radiation at very high frequencies, these are known as X-rays. There are also more powerful x-ray sources outside the galaxy such as pulsars. These events can thus be observed better with telescopes designed to see these wavelengths than with ordinary optical telescopes. The main problem with these telescopes is that the Earth's atmosphere is opaque to X-rays. This means that ground-based X-ray telescopes are not very useful. Therefore these telescopes are now normally launched on satellites. The University of Leicester is particularly strong in this field. Information can be found at www.star.le.ac.uk.