Leon Van Speybroeck

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Leon P. Van Speybroeck (

light years from Earth. The data from Chandra prompted new discoveries about the evolution of stars and galaxies, the nature of the black holes, dark matter
, and the shape and dimensions of the universe.

Contributions to Chandra X-Ray Observatory

The Chandra mirrors designed by Van Speybroeck are the smoothest and most precise ever made, with tolerances measured within just a few atoms. The telescope's

arcsecond
, is ten times better than its predecessor and equivalent to being able to read newspaper text from half a mile away. The x-ray mirror assembly, with its four pairs of cylinders coated with highly reflective iridium, lies at Chandra's core. The mirrors deflect x-rays at very shallow angles, like skipping pebbles across a pond; in order to make an image, each x-ray is reflected twice โ€“ once from each member of a pair of cylinders. Four pairs of cylinders are nested inside one another to increase the size of the telescope, in order to collect more x-rays. Pending further identification, the first images received by the telescope were dubbed "Leon X-1" as a tribute to the quality of the mirrors.

The Chandra x-ray mirrors resulted from over two decades of collaboration between Van Speybroeck and colleagues at the

Columbia Space Shuttle, piloted by Commander Eileen Collins, launched Chandra during STS-93
in July, 1999. It remains the heaviest payload ever handled by the shuttle program.

Contributions to Early X-Ray Astronomy

After completing his PhD in nuclear physics at MIT, Van Speybroeck joined a team at

space observatory. The team ultimately designed the mirrors for the Einstein Observatory, Chandra's predecessor, which launched in 1978 and represented a several hundredfold improvement in resolution. Van Speybroeck also played a role in developing the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement; COSTAR was used to correct the spherical aberrations on the original Hubble Space Telescope
mirrors.

In recognition of his contributions to x-ray optics, Van Speybroeck was elected a

Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1989 for "continued contributions to the development of x-ray optics and other instruments for x-ray astronomy, and for pioneering studies of the x-ray emissions from normal galaxies" [1] He was also awarded the 2002 Bruno Rossi Prize of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society.[2]

Leon Van Speybroeck died unexpectedly December 25, 2002 at age 67. At the time of his death, Van Speybroeck was generally acknowledged as the world's premier designer of x-ray telescopes. The "Six Years of Science with Chandra, Dedicated to Leon Van Speybroeck" Symposium was held in Cambridge, Mass., November 2โ€“4, 2005. Topics of X-ray astronomy included: Supernova Remnants, X-ray Optics, Young Stars and the Chandra Orion Ultra-Deep Project, Comets, AGNs, Clusters and Feedback, Galaxies, Jets and Their Environments, Dark Matter, Ultraluminous X-ray Sources, and X-ray Binary Populations.

Van Speybroeck intended to use his Chandra observation time, in part, to independently verify the

Hubble Constant, which is key to understanding the universe's size, shape and age. Colleagues completed the work successfully and published their findings in August, 2006 edition of The Astrophysical Journal.[3]

References

  1. ^ "APS Fellow Archive". APS. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  2. doi:10.1063/1.1620845
    .
  3. S2CID 18940822
    .

External links

Publications

External links
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