Smile’s first test X-ray image shows Cassiopeia A

This is one of two first images to be released from the X-ray camera (SXI) on the European-Chinese Smile mission. With SXI, Smile is becoming the first spacecraft to make detailed, long-running X-ray observations of Earth’s magnetic field.

The image shows the aftermath of exploded star Cassiopeia A, which lies about 11 000 light-years away. These million-degree hot ‘supernova remnants’ glow bright in X-ray light, making Cassiopeia A a great test subject for Smile. Once it begins its real science phase, Smile will actually look at X-rays released at the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere when it is hit by charged particles from the Sun.

More information about Smile’s in-space commissioning and preparations for science

[Image description: An orange-black image with with a light orange cross at the centre. In the middle of this cross is a bright spot. Another much smaller cross sits to the upper left of the bigger cross. The background is a patchwork of about 35 orange squares in a 7x5 arrangement, with the squares becoming darker the further away from the cross. Covering the whole image is a grid of thin light blue lines that suggest a coordinate system.]