Chandra Announcement: Chandra Newsletter Issue 35 - 25 Years of Chandra

[Tara Gokas]

Chandra Newsletter

Issue 35 — Summer 2024

In this issue: We celebrate twenty-five years of Chandra in this jam-packed issue of the Chandra News. Along with updates on new and continuing programs, including the Chandra Legacy Program, the 2.1 release of the Chandra Source Catalog, and the NHFP, Chandra teams fill these pages with mission history.  From the HETG Megasecond club and a high-resolution spectrum of Capella like you’ve never seen before to the Data Archive cataloging over 10,000 science papers and the CIAO and Data Systems teams adapting to evolving computational challenges, Chandra’s first quarter century has a lot to write home about!  This Issue can be downloaded as a PDF.

---

	Chandra X-ray Center Director’s Report Pat Slane Things are busier than ever at the CXC, from funding issues to the Chandra Legacy program—to say nothing of our silver jubilee! Director Pat Slane provides an update on all of the goings-on over the past year. Read Article
	Chandra Legacy Program Rodolfo Montez Jr. Last issue, we announced the Chandra Legacy Program. Read about the process that led to the selection of these two new programs. Read Article
	Celebrating 25 Years of Science with Chandra Amruta Jaodand and Dan Schwartz for the Organizing Committees Mark your calendars for December 3–6, when the 25 Years of Science with Chandra Symposium will be held in Boston. An exciting program lies ahead, to celebrate the achievements of the mission so far and to look ahead to what is yet to be discovered. Read Article
	Cycle 26 Peer Review Update Rodolfo Montez Jr. This summer started with one of our most important activities, the Peer Review. Several changes were in effect this year, as we continue to evolve to meet the needs of our proposers, panelists, and staff while ensuring the best Chandra science will be done.  Read Article
	A Project Science Retrospective On 25 Years Of Chandra Douglas Swartz (USRA/MSFC), Steven Ehlert, and Steve O’Dell (NASA/MSFC) As Chandra celebrates its 25th anniversary, the Project Science team nears its 50th. In this article, the current team shares a retrospective on the role PS has played in shaping the mission, from the 1980’s to the present day. Read Article
	HETG: 25 Years of Dispersion H. M. Günther, Sean Gunderson, and Ioanna Psaradaki for the HETG team The HETG team looks back on 25 years of Dispersion. Highlights include new observational and analytical techniques for maximizing returns in crowded fields, from bright sources, and to high spectral resolution as well as updates on recent discoveries and how our understanding of the high-resolution Universe has evolved since 1999. Read Article
	Updates from the Low Energy Transmission Grating Brad Wargelin for the LETG Team With the LETG caught up from HRC’S Return to Science, Brad Wargelin and team take a moment to reflect on the past twenty-five years of LETG science with Chandra. Read Article
	ACIS Update: Twenty-Five Years of Operations Paul Plucinsky for the ACIS Operations Team The ACIS Operations Team has been diligently working to ensure the excellent operation of the ACIS instrument since Chandra was still in Columbia’s cargo bay. Now, after twenty-five years of operations, Paul Plucinsky reflects on the people and the efforts that have driven ACIS’s ongoing success. Read Article
	HRC Update Grant Tremblay, Ralph Kraft, Dan Patnaude, Gerrit Schellenberger, Tom Gauron, & Paul Nulsen Since its return to Science Operations on April 10, 2023, the HRC has successfully completed more than 250 observations, with no reappearance of the anomaly. The HRC team, meanwhile, bids farewell to a long-time member. Read Article
	Overview of Chandra Calibration Larry David Larry David of the CXC Calibration Team provides an update on not just how calibration products have evolved since launch but also what changes have been implemented in recent years. Read Article
	Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) Manager’s Report Mark Weber CXC Manager Mark Weber provides an update on the past year of operations at the Chandra X-ray Center along with an overview of how the CXC has grown, evolved, and adapted over the past 33 years. Read Article
	Chandra Data System Software —  A Retrospective Look Janet Evans for the CXCDS Software team (Past and Present) Have you ever wondered about the vast software infrastructure supporting Chandra and its users? Janet Evans provides a description of the CXC Data System software, from formulation through updates yet to come. Read Article
	The Chandra Bibliography Through Data Raffaele D’Abrusco, Erin Scott, and the Archive Operations team The Chandra Data Archive (CDA) recently celebrated the recording of the 10,000th Chandra Science Paper. Raffaele D’Abrusco and the Archive Operations team dive into these data to show how data use patterns are changing and how the CDA is expanding the range of science Chandra enables. Read Article
	Chandra Source Catalog — Release 2.1 Ian Evans and Rafael Martínez-Galarza for the Chandra Source Catalog team On April 2, 2024, Version 2.1 of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) officially released. Ian Evans and Rafael Martínez-Galarza describe what’s new with the CSC, how you can access the catalog, and the road that has led to this fantastic resource. Read Article
	Celebrating 25 Years of CIAO: A Milestone in Astronomical Data Analysis Antonella Fruscione and the CIAO Team CIAO, born as a limited set of tools for data analysis and proposal preparation, has blossomed into a comprehensive suite of utilities and applications for astronomers working in all wavelength domains. With an eye to the past, the CIAO team updates us on recent developments and how the essence of the software has evolved over two and a half decades. Read Article
	Gerald K. Austin (1940–2023) Harvey Tananbaum, Ralph Kraft, and Melinda Dillon Jerry Austin was a leading figure in the development of X-ray astronomy, and his work on the HRC—before and after launch—was critical to the lasting success of Chandra. Colleagues Harvey Tananbaum, Ralph Kraft, and Melinda Dillon eulogize Jerry, who passed away in December 2023. Read Article
	Updates on the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Paul J. Green This past September saw the NHFP Symposium come to Cambridge, Massachusetts; Paul Green recaps that exciting week and discusses the selection of twenty-four new fellows of the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program. Read Article
	Honoring and Celebrating 25 Years of Chandra Kimberly Arcand & Megan Watzke Twenty-five years of science is a cause for celebration here at the Chandra X-ray Center! Our Communications and Public Engagement team has been hard at work sharing the joy, from concerts in Las Vegas to Fenway Park and from local pubs to the National Mall. Learn about the activities celebrating 25 Years of Chandra with the public. Read Article

The Chandra Newsletter is edited by Thomas Connor, with editorial assistance and layout by Tara Gokas. We welcome contributions from readers. Comments on the newsletter should be sent to: chand...@cfa.harvard.edu.