Solar and Stellar X-Ray Group (SSXG) researchers study solar and stellar atmospheres which are composed of extremely hot, highly dynamic plasma. SSXG activities include designing, testing, building and operating instruments, analyzing space and ground-based observations, and creating theoretical models. SSXG researchers are major partners in the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) investigation on the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is set to launch in 2008. SSXG researchers also built the X-Ray Telescope aboard Hinode, which launched in September 2006, the telescope for the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), which launched in 1998, as well as several rockets.

• XRT (X-Ray Telescope)
• Hinode Mission Web Page (in Japan)
• AIA (Atmospheric Imaging Assembly) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
• TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer)
• TXI (Tunable X-Ray Imager Rocket program)

People

Monica Bobra, Jay Bookbinder, Jonathan Cirtain, Edward DeLuca , Leon Golub , Patricia Jibben, Doug Kline, Kelly Korreck, Loraine Lundquist, Katharine Reeves, Steve Saar, Antonia Savcheva, Peter Smith, Yingna Su, Mark Weber

More information and pictures of the group can be found here.

The Solar & Stellar X-Ray Group (SSXG) was founded in 1975 by Dr. Giuseppe (Pippo) Vaiana to continue the research effort he began at American Science and Engineering (AS&E) that led to the first high resolution X-ray images of the Sun from sounding rockets and later from the S-054 telescope on Skylab. In 1978, with the launch of the Einstein Observatory, the theme of a Solar-Stellar Connection was developed. Beginning in 1988, a series of sounding rocket flights led to the development of the multilayer method for high resolution x-ray imaging using the NIXT payload. This program led to the TRACE satellite in 1998, and more recently to the XRT on Hinode and to the AIA on SDO (see above for more details and links). The SSXG is part of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.