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, its rollout didn't go as planned: one of the aperture doors covering its main instrument, a particle-detecting device dubbed Resolve, has remained jammed, causing scientists a great deal of distress.
It's especially pertinent as Chandra's operations are on very thin ice, with a potential budget crunchXRISM's closed-door dilemma is especially unfortunate because Resolve, an incredibly sensitive X-ray spectrometer, is otherwise working as planned after being launched into orbit. The instrument is a major upgrade over its counterpart attached to Chandra, and can detect the energy released by X-rays at a mind-blowing level of accuracy, down to changes in millikelvins.
To do just that, it has to be cooled down, well below the temperature of its already frigid surroundings. "You are basically almost 30 times colder than the coldest part of outer space," Netherlands Institute for Space Research astrophysicist and XRISM science team member Aurora SimionescuHowever, there's a silver lining to Resolve's closed-door conundrum. While the instrument can't measure extremely low-energy X-rays with the door jammed shut, itNonetheless, it's a sad reality for scientists, who were hoping for a revolution in the field of X-ray astronomy.
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