Scorpius X-1

Scorpius X-1 (abbreviated Sco X-1) is an X-ray source, which is about 9,000 light-years away from Earth. It was the first discovered X-ray source outside the solar system and, after the sun is the brightest X-ray source at the Earth's skies. Scorpius X-1 was discovered in 1962 by a team led by Riccardo Giacconi; for this discovery and its benefits to the X-ray astronomy Giacconi received the Nobel Prize in 2002.

History

On June 12, 1962 Aerobee - sounding rocket was launched with an X-ray detector as a payload for the first time. The stated goal of an x-ray of the moon, although could not be reached - today we know that the signal for the former instruments was too weak, so that a " X-ray photo " of the moon in 1990 with ROSAT succeeded - but instead was a bright object found in the constellation of Scorpio, which was called Scorpius X-1.

• Individual star fifth size and darker
• Ray binary
• Scorpion ( constellation )