The X-Calibur instrument, launched by Washington University in the US from the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, is a telescope that analyses X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes and other exotic celestial bodies.
The scientists say that the telescope is carried aloft on a helium balloon intended to reach an altitude of 130,000 feet, where X-Calibur will travel at nearly four times the cruising altitude of commercial airliners, and above 99 per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere. It will need at least eight days to gather enough data for scientists to consider it a success. During this time, the balloon is expected to make a single revolution around the Antarctic continent.
The telescope is designed to measure the polarisation of incoming X-rays from binary systems. The team also hopes to receive information about how neutron stars and black holes in a binary orbit with stars grow by gobbling up stellar matter. Neutron stars are objects of very small radius (30km) and very high density, composed predominantly of closely packed neutrons.
