Mirror, Mirror...

A new type of X-ray mirror that allows images to be made from higher energy radiation than ever before has recently completed testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Previously, these high energy (or "hard") X-rays could only be detected using large detectors, which do not form an image. The imaging technique offers great improvements in sensitivity and resolution, and will allow the direct observation of important physical processes in such unusual celestial objects as neutron stars and black holes. Often, these objects are associated with the emission or generation of high energy X-rays.