X-ray

Topic description and stories

Sustainable solar cell material shown to be highly promising for medical imaging

10 May 2023

Using X-rays to see inside the human body has revolutionised non-invasive medical diagnostics. However, the dose of X-rays required for imaging is...

H1821+643, a quasar powered by a supermassive black hole

Chandra Observatory shows black hole spins slower than its peers

30 Jun 2022

Astronomers have made a record-breaking measurement of a black hole’s spin, one of two fundamental properties of black holes. NASA’s Chandra X-ray...

Professor Andrew Fabian, Credit: Sam Fabian

Professor Andrew Fabian awarded Kavli Prize

27 May 2020

Professor Andrew Fabian from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy has been awarded the 2020 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, one of the world's most...

Dead satellite finds a calm centre at the heart of brightest galaxy cluster in the sky

06 Jul 2016

With its very first – and last – observation, the Hitomi x-ray observatory has discovered that the gas in the Perseus cluster of galaxies is much...

Artist’s impression depicting a compact object – either a black hole or a neutron star – feeding on gas from a companion star in a binary system.

Winds a quarter the speed of light spotted leaving mysterious binary systems

27 Apr 2016

Astronomers have observed two black holes in nearby galaxies devouring their companion stars at an extremely high rate, and spitting out matter at a...

Full length view of coffin from the coffin set of Nespawershefyt, About 1000 BC

Uncovering the afterlife of ancient Egypt

25 Feb 2016

The Fitzwilliam Museum is marking its bicentenary anniversary celebrations with an exhibition on its remarkable collection of Egyptian coffins.

Meteorite impact turns silica into stishovite in a billionth of a second

13 Oct 2015

Simon Redfern from the Department of Earth Sciences discusses a study that has recreated the conditions experienced during the meteor strike that...

Left: 3D model with the jaws open; the individual bones are colour-coded to show the boundaries between them. Right: Original fossil skull of Acanthostega gunnari

Fossil skull sheds new light on transition from water to land

16 Mar 2015

The first 3D reconstruction of the skull of a 360 million-year-old near-ancestor of land vertebrates has been created by scientists.

New CT imaging facility reveals 'internal secrets'

15 Feb 2015

A new imaging facility offers researchers in Cambridge and beyond the chance to see what lies within objects, without breaking them open.

Revealed elongated filaments of hot gas found after enhancing the detail in Chandra X-ray images (purple), also showing the optical light galaxies in cluster (taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey), Credit: NASA Chandra

Galactic ‘vapour trails’ uncovered in giant cluster

20 Sep 2013

Astronomers have discovered enormous smooth shapes that look like vapour trails in a gigantic galaxy cluster. These ‘arms’ span half a million light...

Metastatic breast cancer in pleural field.

Exposure to X-Rays raises risk of breast cancer in young women with BRCA faults

07 Sep 2012

Women with faults in BRCA genes are more likely to develop breast cancer if they are exposed to chest X-rays before they are 30, according to a study...