100 years of x rays

Efficient sub 100 nm focusing of hard x rays

An x-ray beam with energy of 20.5 keV has been efficiently focused down to a spot size as small as 90 nm390 nm by a Kirkpatrick–Baez reflecting mirrors device. The first mirror, coated with a graded multilayer, plays both the role of vertical focusing device and monochromator, resulting in a very high flux s231011 photons/sd and medium monochromaticity sDE /E,10−2d. Evaluation of the error cont...

100 years of servitude.

Forty Years of X-Ray Binaries

In 2012 it was forty years ago that the discovery of the first X-ray binary Centaurus X-3 became known. That same year it was discovered that apart from the High-Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs) there are also Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs), and that Cygnus X-1 is most probably a black hole. By 1975 also the new class of Be/X-ray binaries was discovered. After this it took 28 years before ESAs INTE...

Subject headings: galaxies: general—galaxies: spiral—X-rays: general—X-rays: galaxies—X-rays: ISM

We present results from the analysis of deep ROSAT HRI and PSPC observations of the spiral galaxy M81. The inferred total (0.5–2 keV band) luminosity of M81 is ∼ 3×10 ergs s, excluding the contribution from identified interlopers found within the D25 ellipse. The nucleus of the galaxy alone accounts for about 65% of this luminosity. The rest is due to 26 other X-ray sources (contributing ∼ 10%)...

Diffraction of X-rays