Astronomers Furious at Plan to Shut Down NASA Space Telescope

For over two decades, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory — humanity's most powerful telescope of its kind — has provided astronomers with an unparalleled view, allowing them to better understand the structure and evolution of the universe.that could force Chandra to go dark. The space agency suggested cutting spending on the observatory from $68.3 million in 2023 to just $41.1 million in 2025, and then just $26.6 million in 2026. The budget could drop to just $5 million by 2029.

"The Athena X-ray observatory being developed by ESA — though currently undergoing budgeting pressures of its own — would provide many similar capabilities, with much larger collecting area," Slane told, "but with angular resolution that will fall short of Chandra's exquisite imaging capabilities." Worse yet, NASA's own follow-up to Chandra called Lynx didn't make the cut for "high-priority development funding," he added, meaning that it likely won't be launched until at least the mid-2030s.If the Chandra observatory were to go dark, it'd leave a gaping hole in scientists' efforts to understand the universe.

"If you turn Chandra off, the hit to x-ray astronomy in the US is huge," Ohio State University astrophysicist David Weinberg. "Maybe there will be enough outcry from the astronomy community that NASA will decide we should do something else."

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