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Chandrasekhar Gets $1.5 Billion Tribute

A P Kamath

Pic: Chandra X-ray Center,  Smithsonian Astrophysical  Observatory

The postponement of the launch of space shuttle Columbia at Cape Canaveral in Florida was a big disappointment for its crew, as well as for the numerous female notables, including Hilary Clinton, gathered for the early-morning launch of the first US space mission led by a woman. The launch was to take off on July 20. It was also a big disappointment for many Indians who were waiting for the launch of Chandra X-ray Observatory, named in honor of the Nobel laureate Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar, that Columbia is carrying .

To Indians across the globe -- but particularly in America -- July 20 was going to be a landmark day. For, Chandra, the $1.5 billion space observatory is expected to do for the tantalizing world of X-ray astronomy what the Hubble telescope did for the visible sky: Open up new worlds that have haunted the imagination of scientists for decades. A 41/2-story colossus, Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world's mightiest and costliest X-ray telescope. It will be on a five-year voyage to probe deep into the hearts of galaxies and search for signs of black holes. Chandra, which weighs 50,000 pounds, is the heaviest shuttle payload ever, and costs more than half of the Columbia mission's $2.7 billion budget.

Edward Weiler, NASA's chief of space science, pointed out that Chandra's tenfold increase in power over previous telescopes is a leap that has only been equalled a few times in the history of astronomy, such as when Galileo first turned a telescope toward the heavens, and when the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.

Those events ''changed the face of astronomy. Chandra has the capability to equal or exceed those other milestones,'' he said. Once in its higher orbit -- which will reach out as far as 87,000 miles above Earth, or a third of the way to the moon, at its highest point -- the telescope will be out of reach of astronauts. Even at the low point in its 64-hour orbit, Chandra will be 6,200 miles high -- more than 20 times the shuttle's maximum altitude.

The launch of Columbia, delayed by technical mishaps, is now expected to take place on July 22.

The winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics whose theories about the evolution of stars led to the concept of black holes, Chandrasekhar, died of heart failure on August 21 at the University of Chicago Hospitals. He was 84 years old. Chandrasekhar was known to friends, including the Nobel laureate novelist and professor Saul Bellow, and colleagues as "Chandra."

Next story: To many Indian Americans, Chandra offers special pride

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